I had a great time making this simple apple cake with beautiful pink on the inside Lucy Glo apples. In Park City I happened to find them at The Market, a local grocery store. If you live in Park City, hurry and get some before they are gone, as I assume they are speciality item. Lucy Glo apples are a modern hybrid raised in central WA. They are a combination of Lucy Rose, an older apple with a melon-like sweetness and softer texture, and Honeycrisp apples. They offer this beautiful pink color with tart crispness. They hold up and retain their color in baking and are also great for eating. Another very good pink apple I have used in baking is called Pink Pearl, but it tend to be paler in color.
This recipe calls for three flours, almond, buckwheat and all-purpose wheat flour. I used finely-ground almond flour from blanched almonds, but you can feel free to substitute other nut flours. If nuts have skins, the cake color will be darker but that is fine. For buckwheat flour, I used Anson Mills Rustic Aromatic Buckwheat Flour. If you are not familiar with Anson Mills flours, I highly suggest reading about them at the website and trying some of their products; they are wonderful http://ansonmills.com The Anson Mills buckwheat is harvested younger and is a finer flour. It also adds in some roasted buckwheat flour for flavor. It is much finer than the more readily available Bob’s Red Mill, which will work just fine but yields a coarser texture. You could sift if for a more refined cake.
For the all-purpose flour, I used King Arthur baking company organic all-purpose flour which has a higher protein content than most all-purpose flours. I think it makes a significant different in achieving good results at high altitude. I have not tried substituting a GF flour blend in this cake at altitude, but it works fine at sea level. If you do use a GF flour blend at altitude, I would make the same the high altitude adjustments as for all-purpose flour.
Buckwheat, Almond, Honey Apple Cake
175 g room temperature butter
125 g dark brown sugar
50 g runny honey
2 large eggs - room temperature
25 g unsweetened almond milk (or other nut /dairy milk)
125g almond flour
100 g all purpose flour (high altitude 130 g
75 g buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 small - medium apples, thinly and evenly sliced
To finish - 25 g honey and juice from 1/2 a lemon
DIRECTIONS
Baking pan - 9"-10" round cake pan, sprayed with coconut oil and lined with parchment
Place buckwheat flour, all-purpose flour and baking powder in a bowl and whisk together to combine evenly. Put the almond flour in a separate bowl and make sure there are no clumps - whisk or use your fingers.
In a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, throughly mix the butter, brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, ginger and salt with the paddle attachment until super light and fluffy. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs and almond milk, mixing until fully incorporated.
Add the almond flour and gently mix in with a rubber spatula. Gradually add the flour mix, gently combining with the the spatula. The batter should have ingredients evenly distributed but not be overmixed. You don't want to knock out the air you beat into the egg, butter and sugar mixture.
Spoon the batter into the cake pan, and arrange the apple slices on the top. Drizzle with lemon juice and honey. Bake about 35 minutes. A skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.
NOTES
High Altitude Instructions:
Brown Sugar: 5000-7000 ft, use 110 g; 7000-9000 ft, use 95 g
Almond Milk: 5000-7000 ft, use 40 g; 7000 - 9000 ft, use 40 - 55 g
All Purpose Flour: 5000 -7000 ft, use 130 g; 7000-9000 ft use 145 g
I use a higher protein all-purpose flour (11.7 g per cup). If you use a flour with lower protein at altitude, you may need a bit more to add enough structure to hold up this cake
Baking Powder: 5000-7000 ft, use 1 1/2 teaspoons; 7000-9000 ft, use 1 1/4 to 1 teaspoon)