This recipe I first made because I was teaching a cooking class and I was using different beers and Redd’s Apple Ale had just came out.

Which if you never tried it, it really is a great light beer, its very refreshing, when I first tasted it my first thought was this beer would be fantastic on an extremely HOT!! day 🙂 
It just gave me that refreshing feeling…I thought it was great, so I paired it with this Apple Cake.

(I was doubling the cake in these pictures, I used a 11×15 pan)

Ingredients (missing in photo, butter and brown sugar)

 

 

 

Peel, core and slice apples

 

 

 

add flour, cinnamon and baking powder, whisk together

 

Add softened butter and brown sugar

 

 

Cream together

 

add eggs and vanilla

 

when mixed

 

add 3rd of flour, mix, then half applesauce, mix
another 3rd flour, mix, rest of the applesauce, mix
add rest of flour, mix

 

 

fold in the flour on the sides

 

spread mixture in sprayed baking dish

 

layer you apples over top and bake

 

Meanwhile in a sauce pan add cider, beer & brown sugar

 

reduce down and let cool slightly

 

Baked

 

pour over cake using a pastry brush to spread around

 

 

Then let cool down, then slice and serve

Recipe – Apple Cake

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 cups brown sugar, packed, divided
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large apples, peeled, cored, sliced
1 1/2 cups apple cider
1 cup Redd’s Apple Ale

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees, spray a 9 inch square pan.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  In a large bowl beat with a mixer butter and 1 1/2 cups brown sugar for 3 minutes.  Add vanilla and eggs, beat until combined, reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of applesauce and beat until just combined, scrap the sides and fold in by hand.

Pour batter into pan and smooth out, arrange apple slices in rows on top, if you like more apples you certainly use more, and overlap them more closely.

Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Set on wire rack to cool about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in a medium sauce pan add cider, beer and remaining brown sugar cook over medium-high heat until reduced to about 1 cup and let cool slightly.  With a pastry brush brush mixture all over the top of the cake, letting drip down the sides.  Let cool, then serve.

If you did not want to use beer you can just add more cider.

This cake is super most and the cider/beer reduction is so good, soaks right in 🙂

Enjoy!!!