I bought a half-bushel of my favorite Stayman-Winesap apples this year and am slowly working my way through them. This recipe only uses one medium-large apple but at least it’s something!
I know I’ve said this before, but older recipes often call for nuts at a rate I do not see in books that came out in the last 20 or so years. I don’t know if nuts were cheaper back then (they have been pricey since I’ve been cooking and massively expensive now) or what but so many recipes are really nut-centric. Or you will have the opposite, the recipe will include such a very small amount of nuts that I can’t imagine they added much if anything to the flavor or texture of the recipe. I supposed if you had always had a copious amount of nuts on hand, you’d be more willing to toss them in?
I am not a huge fan of nuts, personally. They are fine but not something I really seek out to include in my cooking and baking. I try to time my baking with nuts with when I’m serving the dish to other people or know I am going to see people and can share.
Since we made this for our Thanksgiving dessert when we were cooking just for us we decided to swap the walnuts for coconut. You don’t have to do this if you prefer walnuts!
The recipe was pretty good before I got my hands on it. I largely rewrote it to be more clear. She called for an angel food cake pan but I subbed in a flatter tube pan with a removable bottom instead since the cake doesn’t need to be inverted on the pan’s feet the way an angel food cake pan would. The cake does rise quite a bit so don’t be tempted to put it in a smaller pan. I pulled out the sugar measurements from the directions and popped them into the ingredients list.
The apple acts as a barrier and creates a little ribbon of fruit, coconut and spices. The sugar-spice-coconut mixture on the top provided some crunch and stayed crunch even two days after we baked. As I said, we had it as a dessert but it would make a great brunch cake or as the name implies, treat with coffee.
Apple-Cream Coffee Cake
Ingredients
for the topping/filling:
- ½ cup unsweetened grated coconut (aka unsweetened coconut flakes, unsweetened shredded coconut)
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon mace
for the cake:
- ½ cup butter, at room temperature
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced we used a Stayman-Winesap
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Butter and flour a tube pan with a removable bottom. We used the 10 cup VARDAGEN pan from IKEA.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the topping/filling ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla and eggs.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream until both are fully incorporated.
- Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan. Top in an even layer with sliced apples. Sprinkle with half of the topping/filling mixture.
- Spoon the rest of the batter on top. Sprinkle with remaining topping/filling mixture.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool, in pan, on wire rack for 30 minutes minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
adapted and updated from Betty McKay’s recipe for Apple-Cream Coffee Cake appearing in The Happy Cooker presented by Entre Nous (1974)