It’s time to admit it! As someone who has more ideas than I can fit into three cookbooks, one audiobook, and even 18 years of history on this website, sometimes when I want to complain about something food-related but it’s not the time or place, I put it in a little document called “rants” full of frustration , you only have my permission to posthumously publish. But I can’t write a headline for this cake without first owning up to #23 on the list in advance: “Fake apple cider cakes.” That raises the questions: Who hurt you, Deb? What gives? Actually, my quibble is that you can put all the fresh pressed apple cider you want in a cake, but it rarely comes out tasting like apple cider. The taste is not strong enough. I’m not saying it can’t be insanely delicious with all the cinnamon spice we put into these cookies, but it rarely, to me, tastes like an accurate representation of its name.
And yet here I am, riding the Audacity Express with nothing but your apple cider cake today. If history is any guide, and by history I mean my previous recipes for Apple Cider Caramels, Apple Cider Doughnuts, and Apple Cider Old-Fashioned (from Smitten Kitchen Keepers), you may have already guessed where I’m going. this recipe by reducing the apple cider so that it is more concentrated and the better taste comes. It won’t have the deep clarity of a caramel apple cider or cocktail, but it’s headed in the right direction. We add the cake spices directly to the apple cider so that as it cooks on the stove, it will be like the boiling pot of your dreams bursting (slightly, fragrantly) in the kitchen and this alone makes this recipe worth throwing out everything. to do. Inhaling and moaning for a long time – I am serious.
But I’m completely burying the lede that I can also say that this cake is dairy-free and egg-free, i.e. vegan. It filled the void last month when I realized that the traditional honey cakes for the Jewish new year were something that non-vegan, or egg and dairy allergic members of our family could enjoy and substitute this as an exchange. I didn’t expect the cake to knock it out of the park in the first round, so much so that it would taste like a warm apple cider donut, the kind that stands out on apple picking trips, but that’s the reason I’ve made it several times since, even when there were no food restrictions nearby. Like the other dairy-free, egg-free cakes on this site [Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, Plush Confetti Cupcakes, Plush Coconut Cake] this is a hot, incredibly moist cake. You’ll never know it’s “lost,” because it tastes as good as all cakes should. Do not over glaze; it really brings home the taste of apple cider.
[This cake apparently fulfilled my lucky-on-the-first-try recipe testing quota for the year as I’ve been lumping along pathetically in everything else I’ve cooked since. Balance!]
Something new! I am very excited to announce a special audiobook edition of Smitten Kitchen Keepers, Beaten Kitchen Keepers: Kitchen Counter Talk! Available on November 12th and read by me, I hope it feels like you’ve pulled up a chair and I’m sitting in the kitchen with you, discussing techniques, tweaks, and discussing what I think makes each recipe special. Bonus recipe: When you buy the audiobook, you’ll get my signed holiday card with a bonus recipe! To get your card and prescription, fill out the form with your purchase order number right here. [US Residents, 18+. Ends December 13, 2024.]
A podcast! A new episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Recipe with Kenji and Debit’s out and it’s all about Popcorn. You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts and catch up on any episodes you missed right here. New episodes come out every Monday. I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoy the conversation.
