Chunky Apple Cake with Browned Butter Frosting

By Addie

Show ‘em some fresh-from-the-oven love with this cinnamon-spiced cake filled with walnuts and hearty chunks of apple. The icing on top? Creamy vanilla browned butter frosting.

Ingredients

• CAKE:
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups granulated
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground
• 3 cups coarsely chopped peeled baking apples (3 medium)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
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• FROSTING:
• 1/2 cup butter (do not use margarine)
• 3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-3 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 12-cup fluted tube cake pan with baking spray with flour.

In large bowl, beat 1 cup butter and the granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in apples and walnuts. Spoon into pan.

Bake 50 to 65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour 30 minutes.

In 2-quart saucepan, heat 1/2 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Gradually beat in powdered sugar with spoon. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla and enough milk until frosting is smooth and desired spreading consistency. Generously spread frosting over top and partially down side of cake. To serve, cut cake with serrated knife.

Expert Tips:

The best baking apples are slightly tart. Top choices are Granny Smith, Braeburn, Cortland, Northern Spy and Rome Beauty.

Browned butter frosting has a sweet, nutty flavor that pairs well with this apple cake.
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REVIEWS:

This is a great recipe! I've made it a couple times now and everyone loves it. After following the recipe exactly the first time, I now add more apples and nuts to the recipe just because I like it that way. I now have people asking me to make for the holidays! It's a keeper for us.

I made this cake for company tonight and can't WAIT to try it! I'm going to make whipped cream to serve with it instead of the frosting though. Mmmmmmmmmmm....

When I was spooning the batter into the pan I thought "this is going to be a cake?" because it was so thick. But out of the oven came the best cake ever. I messed up the frosting, too, but it doesn't need it. Moist and just the right amount of sweetness.

Made this with pecans instead of walnuts and only put the pecans on top. Absolutely delicious. Very moist and buttery. Will make again. The browned butter frosting gave a nice nutty flavor.

It is an amazing cake, but the frosting came out grainy when it was cooling. Had to add more butter, I could frost the cake but it did not adhere and was falling down. I wonder what I did wrong. :-( I will make it again, though, it is delish. I will make a different frosting though, unless I find out what I did wrong.

This cake was amazing. Although, I made a couple changes. First, I substituted pecans for the walnuts. (Georgia girls love their pecans) The only other change I made was instead of using the browned butter frosting, I omitted the butter and made a powdered sugar, vanilla and milk glaze. It was lighter, not as rich and sweet, and was perfect with the cake. I will definitely make this again.

This cake tastes very good, but I have a couple of suggestions. Firstly, I would use shortening to grease the pan instead of spray. My cake stuck to the pan and came out in several pieces. Secondly, I would add raisins to the batter; raisins are always so good with fruit cakes. I also used a less sweet glaze instead of the thick frosting in the recipe. The cake is already very sweet, and I thought it would be overkill to completely frost it. Good flavor, though.

This is similar to my mom's recipe. I may have to try it for this holiday season!

I'm not an apple dessert eater but this looked so pretty. I made this for friends on our game night and this is SO YUMMY! My husband kept grabbing another "thin" slice! I skipped the frosting altogether and used Cool Whip...it was perfect and the recipe is so easy to follow. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

This is one of the best apple cakes I've ever served, and the frosting is phenomenal! It was easy to make and had a wonderful apple taste. Definately a 5 spoon rating!

So instead of the butter and apples I used applesauce and then i added cinnamon spice instant oatmeal instead of the cinnamon. and wow was this cake great. my husband just loved it. I will make this one over again. and I made a cream cheese frosting for the top.

Yummy! I didn't make the frosting, but made the cake with whole grain "white" flour and substituted applesauce for half the butter (I do that a lot when I bake) and it was really good! Makes nice muffins for breakfast, and is pretty healthy with half the fat and the whole grain flour.