Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk cake - a solution to a cold day!

Cold + Windy weather = Baking
Baking + Ingredients - Not enough time = To-go recipe for Buttermilk Apple Cake
Baked Buttermilk Apple Cake - one piece = Warm home + delicious baked good + One happy stomach

So it's been cold, windy, and rainy last week. On one hand, I really felt like baking something, but on the other hand, I was feeling pretty lazy - I know you have had those days too. Especially when it gets so cold - Oh winter, please leave already!

In times like these, I turn to a trusted friend - an apple buttermilk cake spiced with cinnamon that never fails to warm me up. I made these with granny smith apples.The end result was a light and fluffy cake with a hint of tartness from the Granny Smith apples. I also love the way the cake looks - it puffs up over the apples and covers them! Kind of fun to see that happen.

Buttermilk cakes are easy and versatile - it's a blank canvas. As an artist, you can modify it with whatever fruit you like - apples, pears, plums, berries - any fruit you have lying around! I've also experimented with putting mashed bananas in and topping it with chocolate chips and it works great.

Expect more of these buttermilk cake recipes from me, since I make them so often.

Apple Buttermilk Cake
Yield: One 9-inch pan
Servings 6-8
Adapted from multiple sources - smitten kitchen, 101 cookbooks

Ingredients
1 Granny Smith apple
2 1/2 cups of all purpose-flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
2-3 tsp of cinnamon (depends on how you like it - consider also pairing it with ground ginger, but definitely only use 1/8 tsp to a 1/4 tsp of that to make it more spicy)
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray.
2. Combine the eggs and buttermilk and whisk in the melted butter.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, salt and fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
4. Transfer the batter to the cake pan - it's kind of thick, so you need to spread it out.
5. Top it with pieces of the chopped Granny Smith apple.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until its golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Serve warm by itself or with some whipped cream.

Since I love seeing the cake puff up, here's the before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

Isn't that awesome? I could keep going back and forth.

Ah, now I shall sit back and enjoy this delicious buttermilk cake! And I'm going to pretend that I'm in a warm place, like the Bahamas. Some day......

Kartik