Apple Spice Cake (Happy First day of Autumn!)

My most favorite of all the seasons is upon us at long last. The trees are starting to show splotches of pale red and orange, and soon the whole area will be aglow with the lovely colors of Autumn. I truly love everything about fall. This is the time of year that people really start to get excited about baking again, because it's cooled off a bit by now, and people have a little more time in the fall to preheat the ole' oven and bake some goodies.

       I for one am ready to dust off all my favorite fall recipes and start to bake my heart out. Pumpkins, cinnamon, apples, squash, I can hardly take the excitement!!

          This is just a taste of the beauty that is to come soon.

 So as an homage to my beloved Autumn, I thought today would be a good day to write about an awesome apple spice cake  I love to get the creative  fall baking juices flowing, so to speak. (Saliva from anticipatory excitement for consuming this cake counts...)

Apple Spice Cake

 - 3 1/2  cups cake flour ( all purpose flour sifted with 1/4 cup cornstarch will work if you don't have any)

-  1 1/2 cups sugar

- 2 cups apple juice

-1 cup canola oil

-2 medium baking apples ( about 1 1/2 cups), food processed or chopped fine)

- 1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts

-2 t. baking soda

-1 t. salt

-1 t each cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg

-1/2 t. ground cloves

-4 t. apple cider vinegar

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 inch cake pan. Combine wet ( except vinegar) and dry ingredients in separate bowls, whisking to combine. Add wet ingredients to dry, folding until incorporated, fold in apples and nuts, stirring in vinegar right before placing in oven. Bake 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Frosting: 

-1 stick butter, softened

-4 ounces cream cheese

-2 cups sifted powdered sugar

-1 t. vanilla

Combine butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl with whisk attachments. Beat in powdered sugar  until incorporated, then add vanilla. It may take 3- 5 minutes to achieve desired creaminess. Frost cooled cake.

        Are you doing a happy dance for cake joy right now? Cause I am!

I arrange cinnamon sticks and star anise all around the cake for effect,(strategically placed so it can be cut of course) This cake is an absolute delight, and since there are so many people with birthdays in the fall, I get a lot of requests from friends for these for their celebrations. and I've also substituted one half cup of the apple juice for apple sauce and it made it a lot more moist and delicious.

Happy fall baking everyone, I hope you're stretching your phalanges out to prepare for another awesome fall cooking season, I know I am!