It’s fall in New England. That only means one thing: I’m pretty much obligated to bake at least one thing with apples. Since I am not, by any means, a pie person, I decided to go a different route. Apple cake. Luckily for me, Ina Garten has a recipe that combines wonderful flavors and had the entire kitchen spelling like fall.

My Gripe with Apples

This cake was quite easy to bake. In fact, I loved baking it. Mainly because I didn’t have to waste too much time peeling and coring numerous amounts of apples. This recipe only calls for three! That’s a win in my book. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy baking with apples. I just don’t enjoy all the work that comes with baking with them. I realized a last year that four apples is my limit per recipe. It may be a while before I make applesauce again, unless I have some help in the kitchen.

The use of Granny Smith apples makes for quick work since these apples are firmer and less prone to bruising. They peel quickly and diced up nicely. I used my handheld corer that I think is technically for berries to remove the center seed section after slicing them in half through the stem. This route was much quicker and safer than using the old-fashioned corer.

A Spice Cake with “Adult” Flavors

After I baked the Outrageous Brownies last week, the chemist said that the flavor was very “adult.” It was his way of telling me that they weren’t his favorite brownie. Which is fine, I guess. But it made me realize that Ina does tend to use more adult flavors in her baking recipes. This cake is no exception. Raisins are soaked in rum, there’s pecans, and dark brown sugar. In her cookbook, she plates it with a scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and caramel sauce.

That’s all well and good, but I’ll just take a slice on a plate, please!

This recipe can be found in Make It Ahead by Ina Garten, but I’ve included the recipe below.

Ina Garten’s Fresh Apple Spice Cake

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup rum (I used Captain Morgan)
• 1 cup golden raisins (I couldn’t find them, so I used regular ones)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and 1/4-inch diced (I used 3 apples)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 x 2 baking pan.
2. Place the pecans on a sheet pan and toast them for 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly toasted. Set aside. Combine the rum and raisins in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 60 seconds. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, and orange zest on medium speed for 3 minutes. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves into a medium bowl.
4. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined. Drain the raisins, discarding the liquid.
5. With a rubber spatula, fold the raisins, pecans, and apples into the batter. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
6. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool, cut into squares, and serve warm or at room temperature.

How Did It Taste?

After it cooled for about two hours, I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to try a piece. I cut a corner square and as soon as I brought the forkful to my nose, I smelled all the different spices and got a hint of the pecans, too. The cake is dense, which you could tell from the batter in the above photo, and has more a quick bread consistency than a true cake. This would probably work fine in muffin tins as well.

Upon tasting it, I immediately got a sense of the rum, the apple, and all the spices. I’ll admit, after the initial bite I was a bit underwhelmed. It just seemed like something was missing. However, after the second bite something changed. I suddenly kept wanting to eat more. The flavors work really well together and perhaps it was slightly over-baked. However, the cake was still moist. This is definitely and adult-flavored apple cake. And I don’t mean that just because of the rum used in the recipe. The complexity of flavors and subtle sweetness from the sugars and raisin elevate this cake to a new level, one that I’m not sure kids will enjoy.

Of course, I’m sure you’d be hard-pressed to find a child who didn’t like something topped with a scoop of ice cream of their choosing and caramel sauce.