Emma's Apple Cake (with gluten free and dairy free options)

(The photo above is from Pixabay, but it just reminds me so much of the apple barn I visited as a child.)

I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for good apple recipes this time of year!  Recently my friend Nikki posted on her Instagram about an apple loaf cake her daughter Emma had baked.  It looked so good that I asked Nikki if I could have the recipe.  This past weekend I finally got around to trying the cake.  It was SO delicious!

This cake is baked in a loaf pan.  You can see the "apple pie" layer in the middle and on the top.

Here is Emma's recipe, and I will tell you how I adapted it to be gluten free and dairy free.

APPLE PIE CAKE

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk (Emma says: you might add a bit more if the mixture is too thick.)
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling
2 medium apples, diced
1/3 cup apple butter

For the topping
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp.all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cold butter (small pieces)
1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with some non stick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl stir together the flour, baking powder,  and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl using a hand held mixer cream together the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes, then add eggs and vanilla and mix for another minute.
4.Add the dry ingredients along with the milk. Mix just until batter comes together, then set aside.
5. In a bowl stir together the diced apples with the apple butter and set aside as well.
6. Lastly, make the topping: in a bowl add all the ingredients for the topping. Using a pastry blender, mix together cutting the butter into tiny pieces that are well distributed throughout.
7. Pour half the cake batter in your prepared pan, then spoon over it half the apple mixture (push into the batter a bit), followed by the remaining batter, remaining apples and finally finished off with the topping.
8. Bake about 50 minutes to an hour,  then allow it to come to room temp before serving.

(When I made this, I had left some longer ends of parchment paper when I lined the bottom of the pan.  I think it made it a lot easier to get the cake out of the pan.)

For gluten free:  I substituted the  Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour for all-purpose flour in both the cake batter and the topping.  I've mentioned before how much I love this flour, as it can make any cake, cookie, muffin, or biscuit recipe gluten free without having to make a lot of special adaptations.  I include again a photo of this flour, so you will be sure and recognize it at the grocery store.

For dairy free: I used almond milk (in this case the vanilla flavor as that's what my hubby likes) instead of regular milk in the cake batter.  I also substituted canola oil for butter in the cake batter.  In the topping, I also used canola oil instead of butter.

My very first order of business before trying this recipe had been to locate some apple butter.  I had looked at both my local supermarket and Wal*mart, to no avail.  Now, I know that both places do carry apple butter, and was able to find it on my second try.  It's near the jams and jellies, and was on a much lower shelf than I expected.  At the supermarket, I was very pleased to find the product below:

The only ingredients in it are apples, and apple cider concentrate.  No sweetener, no spices.  It was actually perfect for this cake, and there is still plenty left in the jar to bake several more cakes!  You can read about it here: Tap'nApple. 

Hope you'll enjoy this cake as much as we did!