Fall Dessert: Apple Pie Cake

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Now that it is finally fall, we are inundated with pumpkin recipes. Sometimes the wonderful apple gets overlooked. I love apple desserts, and recently I made a delicious recipe I came across called Apple Pie Cake.

I prefer cake to pie, so this caught my attention. It’s full of some of my favorite food groups: toasted pecans, brown sugar, butter, apple pie spice, apples, whole milk, and white cake mix.

The recipe recommends using Granny Smith apples, but I used Honeycrisp, and it was delicious. I’m not sure I have eaten any other kind of apple than a Honeycrisp since I first tasted one when we lived in Virginia. The area where we lived had so many apple orchards, and once I went Honeycrisp, I never went back.

I was just reading an article this weekend about Honeycrisp apples, and how farmers complain about how stressful it is to grow them because apparently these apples are “divas.” :)

Apparently, their skins are easily punctured by their own stems, meaning they must be hand-clipped from the tree, which is a challenge for productivity. These apples also bruise easily. When you taste as good as a Honeycrisp, I say those apples can be as high maintenance as they want to be. I’m good with a diva apple. :)

I guess after hearing all that, I know why these apples cost more than other apples. I absolutely do not care that these apples are like $3 a piece. I will pay it because they are just that good. If you haven’t tried one, please do and let me know what you think!

Okay, enough of my promotional ad for Honeycrisp apples. :)

The recipe for this Apple Pie Cake is a Southern Living recipe, and they never disappoint as far as I’m concerned. Southern people eat some questionable things, but you can’t deny that it all tastes good. :) I love getting my hands on old Junior League cookbooks or cookbooks full of Southern ladies’ recipes.

I recently got one called Recipes, Party Plans, and Garnishes from 1958 and it is full of wonderful stuff we don’t seem to eat or make anymore.

The Southern ladies in my Daughters of the American Revolution chapter make some of the best stuff I’ve ever eaten for our luncheons.

The first step in making this Apple Pie Cake is to prepare the pecan mixture, which combines pecans, brown sugar, melted butter, and apple pie spice.

Then you stir together the apples, lemon juice, more brown sugar and apple pie spice.

Then you combine the cake mix, milk, egg whites, and melted butter.

Add the cake mixture to your baking dish, top it with the apple mixture, then finally with the pecan mixture.

Bake it for 45 to 50 minutes, covering with foil after 40 minute to prevent overbrowning. If you can bear to, :) let it cool and then eat up!

Of course I couldn’t let it cool so I ate it right out of the pan warm with a spoon with ice cream. :)

This Apple Pie Cake is delicious. The way the cake climbs up around the filling makes it almost like a struesel. Gooey from the apples and pecan mixtures, fluffy like a cake, tender, and all the flavors you want from an apple pie but way easier to make.

This did not last long in our house. It would be great to take to a fall potluck or Thanksgiving meal.

If you like apples and want to try a delicious fall dessert, give this Apple Pie Cake a try! I’d love to know what you think.

And I’d love for you to follow me on Pinterest!