French Apple Cake

Makes 8 slices

Special Equipment
Hand mixer
or
stand mixer with whisk attachment

Ingredients

Apples

  • 3 large baking apples (such as Cosmic Crisp)
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Dry

  • 135g (1 cup) all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt

Wet

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 110g (1/2 cup) white sugar
  • 25g 2 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 tbsp dark rum
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Finish

  • 3 tbsp white sugar for the top
  • 1 tbsp powdered sugar for dusting

Method

Prep

  • Gather ingredients
  • Butter a 9" round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper
  • Preheat oven to 350°F

Make the batter

  • Cut apples
  • In a small mixing bowl, toss the apples with apple cider vinegar
  • In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients
  • In a medium mixing bowl with a hand electric mixer,
    • cream the butter, sugar, brown sugar until light and fluffy
    • mix in 1 egg until it's smooth
    • mix in second egg and mix until smooth
    • mix in rum, vanilla extract, and half of the flour
    • switch to a spatula and mix in the rest by hand
    • fold in apples until distributed evenly
  • Transfer to the prepared cake pan, push it in firmly so there are no gaps
  • Smooth the top and dust with ~3 tbsp of sugar

Bake and serve

  • Bake at 350°F until the top is browned and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (~45 minutes)
  • Take out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes
  • Invert onto a wire rack, place a serving plate on top, then invert again
  • Dust top with powdered sugar

References