Weekend Cooking: Elizabeth Hunter's Spiced Apple and Cranberry Cake

Earlier this week I posted by review of An Angel Called Gallagher by M.K. McClintock. Not only did I enjoy the newest entry into the Montana Gallaghers series – but I was excited to see when I reached the last few pages that the author again included a recipe from the novel! Elizabeth Hunter is the grandmother to main characters Ramsey and Brenna and she is always in the kitchen cooking up something that sounds delightful – so much so that I can almost smell it! Well, now I truly can with the recipe for Elizabeth Hunter’s Spiced Apple and Cranberry Cake.

 Elizabeth Hunter’s Spiced Apple and Cranberry Cake
Serves approximately 12 people

Ingredients:

For the Cake-

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large egg whites
2 cups apples, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup pecans, chopped

For the Glaze/Icing-

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2-5 Tbsp. non-fat milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the Cake-

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray Bundt pan with cooking spray w/ flour or lightly grease and flour the pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, & nutmeg.

3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, and eggs. Combine with the dry ingredients until it just comes together.

4. Fold in the apples, cranberries, and pecans. Pour into pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Be sure to test at 45 minutes – a knife inserted should come out mostly clean but not entirely.

For the Glaze/Icing-

1. Combine the melted butter, powdered sugar, and milk. Blend in the vanilla extract. The 2 Tbsp. will result in a consistency of a frosting. If you want more of a light glaze, add additional milk until it reaches the desired consistency.

Fresh from the oven, frosted, and ready to eat!

Tasty!

First, let me say that this cake smells AMAZING!!! My husband couldn’t stop commenting about it even when it was wrapped up and stored – it has a very strong smell. That being said, the taste isn’t as strong as it smells - the cake is just a good spice cake. The vanilla frosting is VERY sweet when consumed on its own (and let’s be honest, I did consume my fair share while frosting the cake before my husband forcibly took the spoon from my hand). When combined with the vanilla frosting (I made mine with just 2 Tbsp. of milk, so it was more like a spreadable frosting), the sweetness of the frosting toned down and blended beautifully with the spice cake. It would be either a good sweet breakfast pastry or an after dinner dessert – I would go with a glaze for a breakfast or a frosting for a dessert.

I didn’t have any allspice available, so I used just an extra ¼ tsp. cinnamon and ¼ tsp. cloves – came out equally as good. I also want to offer a tip I learned while making this dish – have all your ingredients prepped in advance – including chopping your apples and pecans so that you can add the wet to the dry and followed quickly by the stir-ins.

 
All attributions for this recipe are owed to M.K. McClintock and An Angel Called Gallagher.

 
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 


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