Apple Walnut Cake with Cinnamon Sugar Glaze (Vegan/GF)

No kidding – we’ve been working on this gluten free/vegan apple cake recipe for over a year! The recipe is a remake of great-grandma’s famous apple cake, so we had to be certain it lived up to her standards. We’re happy to report that we’ve finally perfected it, and we’re excited to share it with you!

We love revamping old family recipes – it can often be a challenge (as experienced with this recipe), but there’s so much nostalgia attached to each recipe, which makes the process really special. The smell alone brings my mom back to grandma’s house; this, in our opinion, is the true definition of a comfort food. 

One of the key changes we made to this recipes over the course of its very long trial is the addition of gluten free cake flour. We’ve never actually used gluten free cake flour before this, but we were really happy with the results.

If you’re familiar with gluten free baking, you probably know what we mean when we say that the texture of gluten free baked goods can be weirdly dense and lacking in structural integrity. The cake flour we used (this one) made this more similar to a crumb cake, and although still dense, it’s far more similar to the original glutinous recipe.  

Though we haven’t tried it, we imagine this recipe would also be great in muffin form. That’s our next test, so we’ll keep you updated!

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Apple Walnut Cake with Cinnamon Sugar Glaze (Vegan/GF)

• Author: Lexi
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
• Yield: 8–12 servings 1x
• Category: Cakes
• Method: Oven

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Description

An old family recipe made gluten free and vegan (but still delicious!).

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3 flax eggs (One flax egg = 1 tbsp ground flax meal to 2 1/2 tbsp water)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened to room temp
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups gluten free cake flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• Pinch ground cloves
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 2 1/2 cups chopped, peeled apples

Cinnamon Sugar Glaze:

• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

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Instructions

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a cast iron skillet with 1 tsp coconut oil and line bottom with parchment paper.
2. Make flax eggs by stirring flax meal into water. Let sit to thicken for 10-15 min, stirring a few times.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, xanthan gum, spices and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, coconut sugar, coconut oil, apple sauce, flax eggs, and vanilla. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients, mixing well with each addition.
4. Stir in chopped nuts and apples. Pour into skillet and spread evenly. If desired, top with more apples.
5. Bake for 45-50 min, or until toothpick comes out dry. Rotate pan once or twice during baking. Once finished, remove from oven and let cool completely before topping with glaze and more chopped nuts.

Glaze:

1. Whisk all ingredients together until smooth. Pour over cooled cake.

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Notes

Gluten free cake flour can be hard to find – we order ours online here. If you can’t find any, you can substitute with regular gluten free all purpose flour, but the texture may be a bit more dense and chewy.