This apple cake is sort of like a balm on my end-of-summer sadness. I tend to go into a state of denial about the start of Fall, even though I love the weather. I feel real sadness over the end of summer fruit; The berries! The peaches! The plums! Summer is my favorite time for fresh produce, and I don’t let it go without a few tears shed.
Paleo Apple Cake for Rosh Hashanah. (Or: just for anytime in the Fall)
Once crisp, tart apples start to make their appearance at the markets, I start to have a change of heart. While it’s not officially Fall yet, it’s definitely time to transition to cooler weather and Fall produce.
I should mention that I’m eating raspberries and blackberries whilst I type this, so I’m clearly not totally over it.
Being typical Me, I noticed it was almost Rosh Hashanah, oh, a couple of days before Rosh Hashanah. Considering it’s A: been a while since I posted a recipe and B: I was raised Jewish and feel compelled to celebrate the holidays with traditional foods, it made sense to create a special recipe for The Jewish New Year.
Cliff’s Notes on this holiday: It is customary to ring in the New Year with sweet foods, to symbolize a sweet year to come. Apples dipped in honey, Challah, Honey Cake and Apple Cake such as this one are all traditional foods to enjoy on this holiday. The Rosh Hashanah recipes that you don’t see on this blog will be in The New Yiddish Kitchen, which will be hitting shelves in March of 2016.
Of course this simple cake is wonderful any time of year, and I’m relatively sure I’ll be enjoying it for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe the next day, too.
Looking for a sweet honey-apple treat that is nut-free and AIP? Head on over to Predominantly Paleo where my partner in crime has a recipe for Honey Apple Tartlets just for you!
L’Shana Tova!
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Paleo Apple Cake for Rosh Hashanah
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35-40
- Total Time: 45-50 minute
- Yield: 8–10 servings 1x
- Category: dessert
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: jewish
Description
the perfect cake to celebrate apple season, and a sweet year to come.
Ingredients
for the apples:
- 4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1 tablespoon butter, ghee, or brown butter ghee
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
for the cake:
- 1/4 cup brown butter ghee, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1/2 cup raw honey
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1 cup tapioca starch, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon organic cane sugar, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan with brown butter and tapioca starch.
- In a large sauté pan over high heat, melt the 1 tablespoon of butter and add the apples, tablespoon of honey and cinnamon. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring often, until the apples begin to soften and brown a bit. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, melt the remaining 1/4 cup butter and add the honey. Transfer to a large bowl and add the eggs. Whisk to combine. (If using vanilla extract instead of powder, add it here)
- Sift the almond flour, tapioca starch, coconut flour, baking soda, salt and vanilla powder into the wet ingredients and whisk to thoroughly combine.
- Pour a little more than half of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Arrange half of the apples in a single layer on top. Pour over the remaining batter, and top with the remaining apples. Sprinkle with cane sugar, if desired.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the pan and slicing.
Notes
I love the taste of brown butter in this recipe, but if you want it to be dairy-free for Kosher purposes, palm shortening will work as well.
Placing the springform pan on a baking sheet will prevent the bottom of your cake from getting too brown.
I personally like cinnamon to be subtle, but if you want more of a strong cinnamon flavor, feel free to use 1/2 teaspoon.
Raw honey has a stronger flavor which is wonderful for this cake, but any honey will work just fine.
Keywords: apple cake, rosh hashanah
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Carolyn says
hi
I love your recipes. I found you with the pizza crust and ended up buying your book. I will buy the next one too. I am not Jewish but growing up in a polish family our traditional foods are very similar.
I made this recipe tonight, I will let you know how the family likes it but based on how it came together and the taste I had… yum. Thanks for sharing.
Patricia R. says
I just found this recipe. Do you think it would work in a 10″ pan? I will try it regardless. It looks awesome!
zenbellyblog says
It will work but will be shorter and may require a little less time baking.
kim says
can you use regular butter instead of brown butter if you don’t have it on hand?
zenbellyblog says
yes! That works fine too 🙂
Dominique says
Hi, your apple cake looks exactly like what I would like to try. Do you think I can’t do sugar, and would like to use stevia to sweeten, instead of honey. I am concerned however about the texture, considering the volume of honey compared to that of stevia (a few drops only would suffice). What do you think? Thanks very much! No pressure, but I wanted to bake my cake tomorrow morning…. :-((
zenbellyblog says
hm I’m really not sure, I never use stevia! The honey definitely has more volume than the stevia would, and a different consistency, so would definitely effect the texture. I’m just not exactly sure how!
Dominique says
Hi, and thanks for your response. I ended up making the cake with 1/4 cup maple sirup in the batter, and no sugar in the apples, and it tasted great. I increased the quantity of apples a bit, and had caramelize in butter in three different batches, so a bit more butter was required. I do not know what the initial consistency would have been, i can’t compare. But it makes a nice “coffee cake” (or tea cake), with a dense consistency. One day I shall go all the way and not sweeten it at all, as the caramelization of the apples brings their natural sweetness out. To replace the volume of the honey, perhaps using a bit of really fine non sweetened apple sauce would do the trick. Worth a try!
Dominique
zenbellyblog says
I’m glad you liked how it came out! And I love the idea of using apple sauce. If you try that, please let me know how it works!
Donna in Inwood says
Made this last night. It’s delicious. I was afraid that with half a cup of honey and four apples it would be way too sweet, but I was wrong. It’s a dense batter, and the ingredients as given provide the right amount of sweetness.
I had it as a snack today with some nibbles of camembert. Terrific!
zenbelly says
So glad to hear it, Donna! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Terry says
Could I use coconut oil instead of ghee and butter?
zenbelly says
Sure!
Mom2one says
I love this recipe! Sadly, I’ve had to abandon almond flour as well as arrowroot and high amounts of tapioca/cassava flour due to the high oxalates. 🙁 coconut flour is great but I know it can’t be used as a 1:1 ratio.
zenbelly says
aw bummer! And yeah coconut flour is so different. What about sunflower flour? I’m not sure what the oxalate levels of that are.
Michelle says
We use made this and made a slight modification of splitting the honey in half and using coconut sugar for the other half. The result was outstanding! We used gala apples which lended a delightful amount of sweetness. The dough was also just the right amount of sweet. I was surprised and delighted that our 6 and 10 year olds LOVEd this and they are more the chocolate chip cupcake kinda crowd. Thanks for all the time and effort to get these ingredients right – it paid off! This will be our fall apple picking staple recipe.
★★★★★
zenbelly says
I’m so glad to hear it, thanks Michelle!
Debra says
Wondering if arrowroot can be substituted for the tapioca starch. Thanks!
zenbelly says
Hi Debra! Yes- arrowroot and tapioca are two of the few things in the grain-free baking world that can be subbed with great results!