Friday, October 24, 2008
Dulce de Leche Apple Cake

This morning began with a request for a fresh batch of homemade pancakes and soon after the requests began to pile up. My first mission was a coupon treasure hunt at Costco and more miscellaneous grocery shopping at Lucky. Then a request for chocolate fudge sometime this weekend...and a suggestion for sweet potato fudge (still doing some research on that one). Then a bread pudding for my mother's best friend, another batch of pancake batter for my mom to use after I leave on Sunday, maybe some brownies because my mom's boyfriend ran out of box mixes. Not that I had the heart to turn any of these requests down, any excuse to do some baking is enough to catch my attention. But first I had to do what I wanted.

I have been waiting to try this recipe all week. Now they were originally meant to be "Dulce de Leche Apple Bars", but I picked up an adorable circular paper baking mold yesterday at Sur la Table and thought that it would make the perfect size little apple cake. Unfortunately, I must've been into what I was baking that I didn't consider that the batter might overflow. I realized this too late and when I peeked into the oven to see for myself, my susupicious were confirmed. Overflow it had. But I thought it added a certain imperfect charm and it was delicious nonetheless.

My mother and I both agreed that it would do just fine sans the browned butter icing and we would do just fine without all that extra sugar. And being the fruit lovers that we are, we also agreed that next time adding more fruit than the recipe called for wouldn't hurt.



Dulce de leche Apple Cake with Browned Butter Icing

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled apples
1/2 cup dulce de leche


Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x9-inch square baking pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.

Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture, just until combined. Carefully stir in apples.

Spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Drop dulce de leche by heaping Tablespoons over batter. Drag a butter knife through dulce de leche to swirl through the batter. Drop remaining batter over dulce de leche.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until browned and firm to touch. Let cool completely.


Browned Butter Icing

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons half and half cream

Prepare icing: In a small saucepan, heat butter over medium until it begins to brown. Remove from heat. Add to a bowl with powdered sugar, vanilla and half/half. Beat on high speed with electric mixer until creamy. Drizzle and spread over bars, and chill until icing is set.


 

10 comments:

Helene said...

Sounds like you have a busy baking weekend ahead of you!!
The cake looks positively dreamy!

Katie said...

How delicious! Lovely photos, too.

Ashley said...

That pic just makes the cake have so much character! Looks incredibly yummy!

Amber said...

And I thought my oven was busy. I made my own dulce de leche for a pumpkin cake (not posted just yet) and could eat every spoonful myself. I want to make an apple cake also so this looks very good. Bookmarked, thanks.

dessert girl said...

That looks amazing...amazing! The pumpkin version sounds great as well!

Joaninha said...

Your cake looks delicious =). I simply love dulce de leche, and with apples... oh my!!!! =)

ChazFrench said...

While I'm a huge fan of Brown Butter, is there really enough in that recipe to even taste it?

It seems to me that the brown butter would be overwhelmed by the sugar.

If you really like brown butter you should try Lusikkaleivat the recipe is on foodnetwork here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spoon-cookies-lusikkaleivat-finland-recipe/index.html

I recommend using black currant jam in them.

Anonymous said...

your photos are absolutely wonderful-and these sounds so delicious! can't wait to try it!

Anonymous said...

I am so trying to make this one,
Looks and sounds just amazing.

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Your cake does have a rustic prettiness to it!

I made this too but as bars and I got my recipe from the Recipe Girl. I too had a mishap in that I undercooked mine which meant no frosting for mine. Next time...
~ingrid