A homemade apple cake belongs on an autumn table. This is Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock’s recipe from The Gift of Southern Cooking, with my own serving note.
Brooke’s note
I baked mine in a Bundt pan and skipped the caramel glaze because I ran out of time. A dusting of powdered sugar made a pretty finish—but the glaze takes it over the top!
Serves: 12. The instructions below follow the published 9 × 13-inch version. My pictured cake was baked in a Bundt pan; its baking time will depend on your pan.
Cake ingredients
- Butter for greasing
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1½ cups vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- About 3 pounds apples, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 1¼ cups chopped pecans
Caramel glaze
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- A pinch of salt
- ½ cup heavy cream
Method
- Heat oven to 325°F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish.
- Beat both sugars with oil. Beat in eggs individually. Separately combine flour, baking soda, spices and salt; mix into the wet ingredients just until combined. Fold in vanilla, apples and pecans.
- Spread into the dish. Bake 60–75 minutes, checking from 50 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.
- For the glaze, melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in sugars and salt; cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes. Add cream and boil, stirring, for 2 minutes.
- Pierce the cake with a skewer, spoon warm glaze over it, and serve warm or at room temperature.
Bundt variation: Grease and flour every crevice, leave room for the batter to rise, and bake excess batter separately. Test for doneness rather than relying on the rectangular-pan timing. Let the cake firm up before turning it out; add glaze after unmolding, or powdered sugar once cool.
Recipe credit: Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, The Gift of Southern Cooking. Recipe reference: Leite’s Culinaria. Photograph by Brooke Streep; enhanced with AI.