Light and tender apple honey cake with a gentle blend of fall spices. These honey apple spice mini cakes don’t have a marked apple taste, rather the apples serve to lighten up the cake. Think of them as honey spice cakes with just a subtle hint of apple!
If you’re looking for a quick dessert recipe with some fall ingredients then this is the recipe for you. These honey apple spice mini cakes are very versatile: add in some nuts or chocolate chips to the batter or bake them as mini Bundt cakes or as muffins or even as a whole cake (in a 8in. cake pan, for example)!
Tips & Suggestions
- Chunky apple puree:
- You might have some leftover, but it can keep in an airtight container or jar for several days. Enjoy in a yogurt parfait or on toast, or spread it on one of the baked honey apple spice mini cakes!
- Honey: I used wildflower honey in this recipe, but feel free to use any honey you like
- Versatility: Feel free to sub in other fruits in this recipe. For example, cooking down peaches or plums would work well. You can also sub in pumpkin puree for the apples for a truly delicious and tender pumpkin mini cake!
- Storing: These can be kept for up to two days in an airtight container.
Honey Apple Spice Mini Cakes
Light and tender with soft chunks of cooked apples sprinkled throughout.
Equipment
- 1 mini Bundt tin can also use a muffin tin
Ingredients
Cooked Spiced Apples
- 3 apples or 2 large apples
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
Honey Apple Spice Cakes
- 8 tbsp butter, plus 1 tbsp for greasing pan room temp
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 egg room temp
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup cooked spiced apples (ingred. above)
- 1¼ cup flour, plus 1 tbsp for flouring pan
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp allspice
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar, optional
Instructions
Cooked Spiced Apples
- Peel apples and dice into small chunks (roughly ½ in. pieces).Heat a large saucepan with a heavy bottom on medium heat and throw in the apples and lemon juice. Stir and cover on medium for about 3 minutes. Check to see it's not browning and stir. The goal is to soften the apples, not brown them.
- Lower the heat to low and cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Check to see apples have softened and turn heat off. Using a potato masher or large spoon, smash up the apples until you have a very chunky apple puree. Set aside.
Honey Apple Spice Cakes
- Heat oven to 350°. Grease a mini bundt tin (or muffin tin) with butter. If you're using a tin with grooves in it, use a pastry brush to make sure the butter gets in all the crevices. Sprinkle flour over the molds to ensure each one is lightly floured.
- Cream butter with the sugars until paler and fluffier. About 3 minutes.
- Add honey, heavy cream, egg and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- Add in ½ a cup of the prepared apple puree and mix until incorporated in batter.
- Add in the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda until the batter comes together (it will get thicker).
- Pour into prepared mold, until just below the surface line of the mini bundt mold (they will rise during baking).
- Bake for 16-18 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a knife or toothpick into the center of one (it should come out clean when ready).
- Let cool for 10 minutes and use a spoon to gently pop the bundts out on to a cooling rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.