CranHoney-Apple Cake

The day felt like fall. We all agreed that it had finally arrived. Leaves crunched beneath our feet. The cool crisp morning warmed up to a warm afternoon. The men in the family spent the day working on our harvest equipment. The women were cooking, cleaning and chasing children around the house. It was what I imagine a perfect Autumn day to look like.


For me, it was wonderful to hear the chatter and conversations float through the house. Just two weeks prior, I had returned home from a summer spent in Europe. I missed the family conversations, the projects we worked on around the house, cherry harvest on the farm, the summer markets where we sell honey and, most of all, the family dinners where we share our happenings of the day.


I loved to cook. So, I pulled out this recipe for a Honey-Apple Cake that I had wanted to make. I love dabbling in creative cooking, so I adapted this recipe from Southern Living just a bit to create a CranHoney-Apple Cake. The smell of cinnamon, apples and sweet honey soon filled the house.


The cake turned out wonderfully. It tasted as good as it smelled. And, paired with a little vanilla ice cream, it quickly became the perfect finished to a hard day's work on the farm.


From our farm to your house, enjoy!


Elizabeth

CranHoney-Apple Cake

Yield: Makes 1 (10-inch) cake

Ingredients

1 cup chopped pecans, divided

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup CranHoney

3 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups chopped Golden Delicious apples

CranHoney Sauce (recipe below)

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preparation

Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pain; sprinkle bottom of pan with 1/4 cup pecans. Set aside.

Beat sugar, oil and honey at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla, remaining 3/4 cup pecans, and apple. Spoon batter over pecans in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, and place on a wire rack over wax paper. Pour 1/2 cup CranHoney Sauce over warm cake. Cool.

Heat remaining CranHoney Sauce. Drizzle over a slice of cake and, if desired, ice cream.

Honey-Apple Cake recipe adapted from: Southern Living - September 1999

CranHoney Sauce

Yield: Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup CranHoney

1/4 cup milk

Preparation

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Honey-Apple Cake recipe adapted from: Southern Living - September 1999