Apple, Honey, and Olive Oil Cake

This cake is perfect for celebrating. I made it for Rosh Hashanah, but regardless of whether you celebrate the holiday, you can and absolutely should celebrate apple season with this cake. It’s light and sweet, but not cloying. It can easily go with a morning cup of tea or coffee or tag alongside an afternoon cup of cold cider, which is actually used in the cake. The cider plays off the honey, and the fruity flavor of the olive oil amplifies the apples’ sweetness. The spices are just enough to say fall without overwhelming the cake. I make it in a deep 9-inch cake pan like this one but you can use a smaller pan and make muffins with any extra batter. Just make sure to use a light-colored cake pan so the cake doesn’t over-brown on the edges.

Recipe

Ingredients

4 small apples, 3 grated and one thinly sliced (about 640g of whole apples, with about 400g of grated apple for the batter)

2 eggs

½ cup olive oil

1 cup honey

¼ cup plus 1tbsp apple cider

½ cup (115g) brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

2 ½ cups (325g) flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

⅛ tsp ground nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F with a rack positioned in the middle. Grease a 9-inch cake pan with olive oil and line the bottom with parchment. To get a circle, cut a square of parchment just slightly larger than the size of the pan, and fold it into quarters. Turn the cake pan over and place the completely folded closed corner in the middle of the pan. Mark where it meets the edge with a marker, then cut the square on a curve. Unfold it and check the size, cutting a bit smaller if needed. Place the cut circle in the bottom of the pan and smooth it out. Put a small amount of olive oil on top of the parchment.

Toss the apple slices with 1 tablespoon of apple cider and arrange them in a single layer in the bottom of the pan. (This is completely optional, the cake will be just as good if you don’t, but it’s fun. If you choose not to do this, don’t add the apple to the batter though, or it will be too wet.)

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, olive oil, honey, apple cider, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth and fully combined. Fold in the grated apples with a spatula.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. 

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and gently incorporate with a spatula until just combined. Try not to overmix.

Pour the batter into the cake pan until it is ¾ full. If you have any leftover batter you can make a few muffins with it.

Bake the cake for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. The cake will look brown long before it is done, but be careful not to underbake or it will be stodgy. Wouldn’t want Paul Hollywood to come for you!

If you have any muffins, they’ll take about 22-25 minutes to bake. 

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife or offset spatula gently around the edge of the pan and turn it onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before serving.

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