Buttermilk Apple Cake

This is the kind of cake you want to have on your counter.  At all times.  Afternoon snack craving?  Grab a piece of this cake. Need a little dessert after dinner?  This cake does the trick.  Want something to enjoy with your morning coffee?  You get the idea.  The perfect thing about this cake is that it's neither too sweet nor too dense.  It could be topped with almost any fruit, but I decided to use a tart variety of apples from my favorite local orchard as I found them to soften perfectly in the oven.  This cake has ample tang from the buttermilk, nuttiness from the whole wheat and spice from the nutmeg.  It has simple, homemade apple flavor that I so often crave in the fall.  Bake this cake, let it cool on your counter and slice it into generous chunks.  Mark my words, it will disappear in no time.

Buttermilk Apple Cake
adapted from a recipe in Super Natural Everyday by Heidi Swanson
makes 12 servings

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp baking powder (use aluminum-free if you can find it)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (if you're using pre-ground, only use 1/2 tsp)
2 L eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
6 Tbsp (3 oz) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
4-5 small, tart and soft apples, peeled and thinly sliced into half moons
3 Tbsp raw turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a a 9x13 inch metal baking pan and line with parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the first five ingredients.  In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, slightly cooled melted butter and vanilla extract. Don't be alarmed as the wet mixture will likely curdle.  Add the wet mixture to the bowl with the dry mixture and fold together until just combined.  Be sure not to over mix.

Evenly spread the batter into the prepared pan and scatter the apples over the top in an even layer.  Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top of the apples and batter.

Bake for 20 minutes or until just done.  Be sure not to overbake.

Beautiful apples from Sweetland Orchard.  

Layer the thinly sliced apple then generously sprinkle with crunchy turbinado sugar.

The baking powder gives this cake an almost spongey quality, in the best possible way.

Here's to snacking on apple cake.