Make This: Honey Cake with Caramelized Apples from the Martha Stewart Cake Book

Every so often, Martha Stewart complies these awesome themed recipe books. The last one she released was Cupcakes, a couple of years ago.

This year, she’s back with Martha Stewart Cakes. This book is filled with over 150 recipes of every cake you ever dreamed of, thought of, and didn’t even know was real.

The recipes range in difficulty, and there’s something for everyone. Spice cakes, bundt cakes, birthday cakes, cheesecakes, ice cream cakes, pound cakes…they’re all here. Along with the recipes, there are some tried and tested tips and basic recipes for frosting and icing.

I was inspired to bake a cake from this book! I decided to make the Honey Cake with Caramelized Pears because it sounded delicious and had few ingredients. There is no butter in this cake! Of course, I didn’t have pears. So I used apples!

Honey Cake with Caramelized Apples

You need

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons best-quality honey (I used honey from the Kingsbrae Garden)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 10-inch springform pan. Dust with flour; tap out excess. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside. Mix eggs and sugars on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until pale and thick, about 3 minutes.
2. Whisk together honey, milk, oil, and zest. With mixer on low, add honey mixture to egg mixture; mix until combined, about 1 minute. Add half the flour mixture; mix until smooth. Mix in remaining flour mixture. Pour batter into pan.
3. Bake until dark golden brown and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of cake; carefully remove sides of pan.Transfer cake to a platter. Now it’s time to make the topping!

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 3/4 pounds of apples, cut into thin wedges
• 1/4 cup best-quality honey

Caramelized Apples

1. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sugar; cook, stirring, until almost dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. Add apples; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and just golden, 12 to 20 minutes. Pour in honey; cook, stirring, until apples are coated and very soft, 3 to 5 minutes. If you leave this on too long, the caramel will become very thick and unruly, so beware! Top the cake with this mixture immediately, and serve.

This cake was so easy and delicious! My family was impressed with my mad caramelizing skill.

Find out more about the Martha Stewart Cake book or read about the day I met her!