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Double Apple Crumble Cake With Mulled Wine Sauce

A tender cake chock-full of apples, topped with warmly spiced stewed apples and a crunchy almond crumble, finished with a decadent and cozy mulled wine sauce. This isn't your everyday apple cake. This cake has character - flavor, texture, and depth. Served as slices, this also makes a perfect dinner party plated dessert!
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Prep Time:15 minutes
Cook Time:1 hour
Total Time:1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients

Apple Cake

  • 85 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 60 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 65 grams granulated sugar
  • 50 grams whole egg (approx. 1 large egg)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 150 grams apple, peeled, diced (approx. 1 medium apple, 1/2in diced)

Almond Crumble

  • 55 grams all-purpose flour
  • 10 grams almond flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • 40 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 25 grams granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract

Stewed Apples

  • 14 grams unsalted butter (approx. 1 tbsp)
  • 150 grams apple, peeled, diced (approx. 1 medium apple, 1/2in diced)
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt

Mulled Wine Sauce

  • 160 grams red wine (approx. 160ml)
  • 250 grams light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 8 whole cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

Optional

  • Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

Apple Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F and prepare a 6" cake pan by greasing and lining with parchment.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon and set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together unsalted butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until pale in color and fluffy, approximately 3-5 minutes.
  4. To the butter and sugar, add the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, and mix to combine on medium speed. Then, add flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in diced apple with a stiff rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Pour batter into prepared cake pan, and use a spoon or offset spatula to spread it evenly.
  5. Bake until golden brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, approximately 25-30 minutes.
  6. Remove from the oven, and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Almond Crumble

  1. While apple cake is baking, prepare the almond crumble. The oven will stay at 375°F. Prepare a quarter sheet pan with a piece of parchment and set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, almond flour, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together unsalted butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until pale in color and fluffy, approximately 3-5 minutes. Add almond extract, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture, and mix until just combined.
  4. Crumble into small pieces on the prepared sheet pan, and bake until golden brown, approximately 15-17 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Stewed Apples

  1. In a medium pot over medium heat, add butter and melt. Once melted, add diced apples and toss to coat in butter.
  2. Add ground cinnamon, granulated sugar, and salt, and mix to evenly distribute.
  3. Continue cooking until apples are slightly softened, approximately 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Mulled Wine Sauce

  1. Add everything except the lemon juice to a medium pot over medium heat, mix together, and reduce by approximately half, until slightly thickened and syrup-y, approximately 5-8 minutes.
  2. Off heat, add lemon juice. Then, strain through a fine mesh sieve into a heat-proof container (yields ~1 cup of sauce). Set aside.

Assembly

  1. You may wish to re-heat the stewed apples or wine sauce if either have cooled too much. Add stewed apples and almond crumble to the top of the apple cake. Optional: Dust generously with powdered sugar. Pour or spoon mulled wine sauce over top. Serve apple cake warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if preferred. Enjoy!

Notes

* Mulled wine sauce recipe yields ~1 cup of sauce. This is more than you'll need, but I find that it's easier to get the consistency correct when making a slightly larger batch. Feel free to cut quantities in half if preferred.
* Apple cake, almond crumble, and stewed apples can all be made up to 2 days ahead of time if stored in an airtight container. Store apple cake and almond crumble at room temperature. Store stewed apples in the fridge. Reheat the apple cake and stewed apples before serving. Make the mulled wine sauce just before you plan to serve, and keep warm.