All That's Left Are The Crumbs: Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze ~ #TheCakeSliceBakers

October 20, 2022

Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze ~ #TheCakeSliceBakers

This Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze is chock-full of apple and

spice flavor and would be the perfect treat on a cold fall afternoon.

The Cake Slice Bakers are in their tenth month of baking through Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoē François. I seriously find it hard to believe that we only have two more months of baking through this book. It really has been a great cookbook, full of delicious cake recipes ranging from celebration cakes to simple quick breads. For those who may not have heard of Zoē François, she is a talented baker and bestselling author, blogger, and has a series called Zoë Bakes on the Magnolia Network.

The Cake Slice Bakers are a group of dedicated bakers who all love cake. Each year we choose a new cake-centric cookbook and bake our way through it. Every month we are given 3 choices and on the 20th day of each month we reveal what we have chosen on our blogs. This month's choices were Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze, Pumpkin-Mocha Swirl Bundt Cake, and Hot Chocolate Cake. Any of these would have been amazing to bake but I finally settled on the Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze.

This cake is simple to put together as it only requires a bowl and a spoon to prepare the batter. The original recipe from Zoë's website called for hard apple cider, which I may have preferred since I am a huge fan of cider, but the bourbon paired well with it too. It is an extremely moist cake with lots of apple and spice flavor and my family did enjoy it. I choose not to put the nuts in this time, but I definitely will next time as I feel like the added texture is needed to counterbalance the moistness of the cake. The only thing about the recipe that bothered me was the amount of oil and sugar in it. I much prefer to bake with butter than oil, so I may have to play around with the recipe to accommodate this preference, and also to see how much I can decrease the sugar and not affect the outcome of the cake.

Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients
Apple Cake ~

300ml (1¼ cups) mild-flavored oil
300g (1½ cups) granulated sugar
130g (⅔ cup) lightly packed brown sugar
10ml (2 teaspoons) pure vanilla extract
30ml (3 tablespoons) bourbon
3 eggs, at room temperature
300g (2 cups) packed grated apples, plus 300g (2 cups) apple chunks (about 4 medium apples)
240g (2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus 1 tbsp. for tossing with apple chunks
130g (1 cup) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
5g (1 tablespoon) ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp kosher salt
100g (1 cup) toasted, chopped walnuts (optional)

Honey Glaze ~

60ml (¼ cups) heavy whipping cream
50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons bourbon
15g (1 tablespoon) butter
pinch kosher salt

Preparation

Apple Cake ~

Preheat the oven to 165°C (325°F).
Spray a 2.8 liter (12-cup) Bundt pan with baking spray; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the oil, both sugars, bourbon, vanilla, and eggs and stir with a spoon to mix.
Stir in the grated apples.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the 240g (2 cups) all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Add dry ingredients to the apple mixture and mix only until it all comes together in a smooth batter.
Toss apple chunks and walnuts (if using) with the 1 tablespoon flour, then fold into the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, gently tapping the pan on the counter several times to make sure the batter has fully settled into the nooks of the Bundt.
Bake until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a serving plate.

Honey Glaze ~

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the cream, granulated sugar, honey, bourbon, butter, and salt; stir to mix and then simmer for 2 minutes.
Drizzle half of the glaze over the still warm cake, saving the remaining glaze to drizzle over the cake when it is fully cooled and ready to serve.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoē François. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.