Country Apple Cake with Huckleberry Sauce

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"Chef Fritz made the cake batter just as the recipe describes. But instead of baking it in a single 9-inch cake pan, he used individual ramekins lined with walnuts. When the cakes were cooked, he inverted them out of the ramekins to show the crunchy walnuts. He spooned the huckleberry sauce on top. But even though the original recipe stops there, Fritz and his students didn't.

'One little thing we were looking for was a bit of cream,' he said. So he dressed up the mini cakes with a scoop of high-quality vanilla bean ice cream. Then he stuck thin apple chips in the ice cream. He made them by slicing an apple on a mandoline and dipping it quickly in syrup made by boiling water and sugar, measured in equal proportions. He cooled the slices in the refrigerator and then crisped them in the oven for a minute or two.

But he still wasn't finished. He made a caramel sauce that he drizzled around the edges of the plate.

He had one more piece of advice: Serve hot foods on hot plates and cold foods on cold plates."

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  • 8

Ingredients

  • Cake:
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 (8 ounce) carton plain yogurt
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup granola
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 large Washington apples
  • 2 cups shelled walnuts
  • Sauce:
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup (4 ounce jar) huckleberry jam
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a 9-inch round cake pan. In a large bowl, combine the oil, egg, yogurt, brown sugar, vanilla and granola and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt and add to the oil mixture in large bowl.

Peel, core and thinly slice apples and fold into the batter. Pour into prepared cake pan and top with walnuts. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt butter in saucepan on low heat. Add brown sugar and whipping cream, stirring until dissolved. Mix in vanilla and huckleberry jam using a whisk to remove lumps. Remove from heat and set aside. When cake is done, dust top with powdered sugar.

To serve, cut cake in 8 slices. Put 1 large spoonful of huckleberry sauce on each plate. Place a slice of cake on the sauce and then drizzle cake with additional sauce.

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