Harvest Apple Cake with Caramel Apple Glaze
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups finely chopped gala apples (One pound apples)
1 cup toasted pecan pieces
1 cup apple juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake pecans in a single layer for 5 minutes. They won’t be completely toasted but they will brown more as the cake bakes. Pour 1 cup apple juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce volume by half. Divide reduced juice into two portions: three tablespoons for the cake and 1/4 cup for the glaze. Reserve any leftover juice for another use. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer. Add eggs. Mix until combined.
Add 3 tablespoons reduced apple juice. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add flour mixture to butter sugar mixture in two additions. Scrape sides of bowl with a spatula after all flour is mixed in. Add apples. Mix until distributed evenly. Spoon batter into a 9 X 11 inch baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Using back of spoon; smooth top of batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle pecans on top. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Pour glaze on cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Caramel Apple Glaze
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4 cup reduced apple juice
15 caramels, unwrapped
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Bring first four ingredients to a rolling boil in a saucepan over high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve sugar. While mixture is coming to a boil place caramels and milk in a microwave safe bowl. Cook caramels in microwave for one minute. Smash caramels. Cook for additional time stopping every 30 seconds to stir until caramels melt. Once caramels melt, stir until milk is completely incorporated into the caramels. When butter mixture comes to a boil add melted caramels. Remove from saucepan from heat and stir until everything is incorporated. Add vanilla; stir. Pour on hot cake.
Published in The News and Neighbor on November 2, 2013
Mary Duke Cooks! 
So delicious!
Need a bit of help on how much to reduce the apple juice for the glaze. Thank you. Judy.
Hi Judy! You start with one cup of apple juice and reduce it to 1/2 cup. You will need 3 tablespoons for the cake and 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons for the glaze. So if 1/2 cup equals 8 tablespoons you should have 1 tablespoon left over! Whew that’s a lot of math. I also thought about just using frozen apple juice concentrate. I didn’t get to test the recipe out using it so I don’t know how that would taste. Another option would be to use apple cider since it is in season. Let me know how it turns out!
Mary Duke