- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making an amazing apple cake
with maple buttercream from my new book.
So let's get started.
First off, set your oven to 350.
Butter and flour two nine-inch cake pans.
And you can pop a parchment paper round in there
if you wanna be totally sure
that your cakes will release magically.
Which I always do.
Now in a large bowl, I'm adding three cups
or 360 grams of all-purpose flour.
And I'm sifting everything together.
It's an optional step, (upbeat music)
but it's always a good practice.
For leavening, I want two teaspoons of baking powder.
And two.
I'm also adding in one teaspoon of kosher salt.
But if you're using a finer salt of any kind,
go down to 3/4 of a teaspoon or even 1/2 a teaspoon.
It depends.
Some salts are super salty.
And what would an apple cake be without fall spices?
This is actually in the fall chapter of my book.
And it's one of those amazing, just like delicious
easy recipes you can make
that have all the characteristics of the season.
So you have the apples, the spices, the maple syrup,
and the buttercream.
And it's all crowned
with like a beautiful sugared thyme wreath.
This cake is one of my favorites
and I'm so happy I get to share it with you.
Sift it together. (upbeat music)
Our scale is done.
I'm gonna give this a quick whisk.
Just really wanna distribute all those ingredients,
especially the spices and leavening agents.
Set this aside.
And now it's time to cream our butter and sugar.
Into the bowl of my stand mixer,
fitted with a paddle attachment,
I'm adding one cup or 226 grams of room-temperature butter.
Your butter temperature is so important
because if it's too hard, it's not gonna mix up well.
And if it's too soft,
you're not gonna be able to pump all that air in
that you need when you mix butter and sugar
to get it light and fluffy. (upbeat music)
I'm gonna cream this up just for a minute or so.
Or less. (mixer whirring)
And once it's creamy, it's time for 1 1/4 cups
of granulated sugar.
That is 250 grams.
(mixer whirring)
In you go.
I'm gonna give that a really quick scrape
and then it's time for one cup of packed light brown sugar.
(upbeat music)
Brown sugar is just regular granulated sugar
that's coated in molasses.
That molasses pairs beautifully with spices and apples,
so it's really nice to have some in your apple cake.
Set your mixture on medium to medium high.
We're gonna mix this for about five minutes
until it is light and fluffy.
In the meantime, let's crack our eggs into a bowl
so we can be sure there's not gonna be any shells.
Four large room-temperature eggs.
(John tuts)
Look at that.
A shell.
(mixer whirring)
And that's why we crack them into a bowl.
That little shell would be a horrible surprise.
No, no, no, no, no.
(mixer whirring)
While that butter mixes up,
I'm gonna peel and grate my three Honeycrisp apples.
You could really use any apple that you enjoy
for this cake.
They're going to break down
and just add a lot of sweetness and moisture once they bake.
And three apples should yield about two cups.
So if your apples look abnormally large or small,
just pop the grated apple into a measuring cup
so you can be sure.
This is ready for a scrape down.
But first I will grate those apples.
I am so excited to be sharing this recipe with you.
It's one of over 100 brand new recipes
in the cookbook.
Each recipe in the book is really special to me.
There's a little explanation of why
and how it fits into the season.
And they always take the ingredients
that you'll have fresh at the moment
with the vibe that you have in that season.
So I know that in the summer,
you probably want lighter food.
You're out and about.
There's tons of fresh, amazing produce,
like all those summer tomatoes.
But in the fall, you're taking advantage of apple season.
There's cinnamon, nutmeg,
allspice flying around your kitchen.
And in the winter,
you're definitely having those holiday cozy vibes.
And this is like all celebrations.
This looks like a lot of apple,
so I will be measuring it out.
It's better safe than sorry.
Whenever we have something like apples, bananas,
or zucchini that you're adding to a recipe,
the size can be totally different.
So it is a good idea
just to measure out how much you need
so your cake or baked good won't be laden with moisture
and unable to have that nice rise
and delicious crumb that you want.
So a little bit extra snacking apple for me.
I also want two teaspoons of freshly chopped thyme
for this cake.
There's thyme crowning the top.
But it's inside as well
and adds a wonderful note of flavor to the apple cake.
Let's give that a chop.
And now we're ready to add our eggs in.
(mixer whirring)
Add your four eggs in one at a time.
Let each egg incorporate before adding the next in.
And yeah, you should scrape the bowl down
at least once during this process
because the middle of your bowl is gonna be an egg soup
and the outside will be butter and sugar.
(mixer whirring)
There we go.
(upbeat music)
Time for our last egg. (mixer whirring)
Bloop.
Now we're gonna mix in two teaspoons of vanilla.
As well as our freshly chopped thyme.
Thyme and rosemary are actually really wonderful herbs
that you can add to desserts
to give them just a little something extra.
In the cookbook,
I have this rosemary caramel with a pecan shortbread.
They're like millionaire shortbread bars
but so much better.
And the rosemary is a wonderful
just like hint of something that you get.
It's not overpowering.
(mixer whirring)
Now while mixing on low,
we're gonna add in the flour in three batches,
alternating with the grated apple.
And I will say, it is so important not
to overmix your batter.
In fact, I will be finishing this off by hand
as I am wont to do.
I just do not wanna have a gummy cake.
Now we're gonna add in half the grated apple.
Another third of the flour.
The remaining apple.
Notice I'm stopping the mixer in between.
Back to mixing on low.
The remaining flour goes in.
That's it.
I still see streaks all throughout this batter.
I'm just gonna fold it together with my spatula
and that way we can have
a fluffy, moist melt-in-your-mouth cake,
not a dense and gummy one.
Just scrape the bowl down, fold it together.
And just like that, the cake batter is done.
Now I'm evenly distributing the cake batter
into my two nine-inch pans.
(upbeat music)
There we go.
Use a spatula to smooth these cakes out
so they're nice and evenly baked.
Pop some baking strips on if you wanna use them.
They're wet fabric strips
that let your cake bake up nice and even.
These guys are ready to go into the oven.
30 to 35 minutes at 350
or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
While our cake's baking, we're gonna make
a delicious brown butter maple buttercream.
The first step is to brown your butter.
So add one cup or 226 grams of unsalted butter
into a small saucepan or pot.
You're gonna cook this over medium heat
until it has a nice, beautiful light brown color.
It's gonna be like 10 to 15 minutes,
depending on your heat source.
It might even be a little bit less.
Your butter can just hang out until it's all melted
and you hear a little bit of a bubbling sound.
Then you're gonna give it the occasional stir
just because the milk solids
in your butter will brown and be delicious.
They have like a nutty taste to them.
But if they get too hot, they'll burn and become bitter.
And nobody wants bitter butter.
Not even Betty.
(upbeat music)
And by the way, if you don't wanna brown your butter,
this is still delicious with regular old butter
in the maple buttercream.
Browning it just adds extra depth of flavor.
And, like I said earlier,
you'll have like this hint of nuttiness happening.
It's very nice.
When the butter's close to being done,
it'll start foaming up a lot.
And you really have to stir and take it off heat
as soon as you think it might be done.
Because it can go from being perfect and amazing
to too dark very quickly.
Should be like a light amber color.
Because as soon as you take it off heat, it'll darken up.
You can also tell by the smell when it's done
because you'll have this whiff of like amazingness.
What is that deliciousness?
And it's the browned butter.
My butter's bubbling.
It's foaming away.
That means it's time to stir, stir, stir.
So keep an eye on it.
You'll clear the foam away to peek underneath.
And then it'll be ready.
And by the by, you can make brown butter well in advance.
I often like to have big batches of browned butter
to use 'cause it's delicious in everything.
Browned butter pasta.
Browned butter risotto.
Browned butter ladle over your fish.
It's all delicious
and it adds so much flavor every single time.
It's not just for sweet things.
Ooh, this is a beautiful color.
Pouring this into a dish so it can cool down.
Oh, look at that.
These are all milk solids that caramelized at the bottom.
You can scoop those in as well.
It's kind of optional.
I want them 'cause they're tasty.
And now you have two choices.
If you're using vanilla extract,
you'll add it in at the end.
But if you're using vanilla bean paste
or a vanilla bean like I am today,
then just scrape it out.
Get some of that amazing black magic out.
Add that into your butter.
Stir the vanilla in.
And now you have two options with your butter.
You can let it sit on the counter for four hours
and it'll come back to room temperature and be whippable.
Or you could pop it into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Just stir it every once in a while
because the outside will harden first.
You could also pop it into the fridge
if you wanna give it a little bit more time.
While the butter cools,
I'm gonna make the crystallized thyme
that's gonna crown the cake.
It's really easy and so pretty.
The key ingredient is a simple syrup.
So in a small pot,
add 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1/2 a cup of water.
Swirl it together.
Place over medium heat, stirring frequently,
and heat it just until the sugar dissolves.
If you have simple syrup hanging around,
you don't have to make your own.
It's just the glue that's gonna hold that sugar
onto the thyme
and give it that sparkly beautiful appearance.
Just like that, my sugar's dissolved.
This can cool down a bit and then we'll dip our thyme.
I'm popping this into a bowl
so you can see what happens on the inside.
And so it cools down faster.
Fiery hot sugar solution will wilt your thyme.
No, no.
It should be room temperatureish.
So just set that aside. (upbeat music)
It'll take a couple minutes.
Once your simple syrup is cooled,
you want a little station.
Simple syrup, sugar.
It's like some sugar.
Doesn't really matter how much
'cause it depends on how much thyme you wanna do.
And then a piece of parchment paper
just to lay things out on to try.
Grab your thyme.
And I washed this and dried it so it's nice and clean.
We're gonna dip that into our simple syrup.
But then shake it off.
And then just move it around in that sugar.
And what you end up with is something
that looks like it's covered in glittery snow.
It's so pretty.
Set that aside and repeat the process.
Just keep dipping.
And the most important thing
is just to make sure that you tap the excess off.
'Cause if you plunge it right into the sugar,
then it's gonna be like a massive glob.
You won't be able to see all those beautiful leaves.
I don't know if you can tell how pretty this is.
But once it's on top of your cake,
it's gonna be stunning.
And you're gonna wanna do this
for a bunch of different cakes.
One of the reasons I included this technique
in the book was the nostalgia.
I did this as a teenager
when I was a little high school student
nerdily making tiramisus
with crystallized pansies with my friends.
That was what was cool to me.
So, it's in the book now.
I love it and I hope you try it too.
(upbeat music)
My cakes are outta the oven and cooling.
And now it's time to make our frosting.
Look at this butter.
It only took about 10 minutes in the freezer
to cool down to room temperature.
And it smells amazing.
This is like heaven on a spatula right now.
Grab all this butter, including those browned bits.
That's all the flavor.
Pop that into your mixer.
And we're gonna include some maple syrup
and a little salt to get this frosting started.
Now we're adding 1/4 cup of maple syrup.
This is a beautiful flavor to add with apples.
And one teaspoon of kosher salt.
I will say, if you're using a finer salt,
go ahead and use 1/2 a teaspoon
or even 1/4 teaspoon and then add as needed.
Same goes for iodized salt,
which is a saltier salt.
Gonna mix this up on medium to get it nice and combined.
(mixer whirring)
This looks gorgeous already.
It's like whipped to perfection.
Just gonna give the bowl a little bit of a scrape.
Now I'm gonna add about five to six cups of powdered sugar
in a few batches.
You're adding powdered sugar here to taste.
So it's really
how sweet do you want this to be?
But also to give the butter some structure,
because the butter has no strength.
It'll just slide right off
as soon as it gets above room temperature.
Mix on low until the sugar's incorporated.
(mixer whirring)
I have six to eight tablespoons of cream
to add in between the batches of sugar.
So add about three tablespoons of cream in.
(mixer whirring)
Mix it in.
(upbeat music)
A little bit more cream. (mixer whirring)
Once everything's incorporated,
move your mixer to medium.
And we're gonna mix this for about a minute
until it is light and fluffy. (mixer whirring)
Hmm!
Look how gorgeous this is.
It took almost no time to make
once you have the browned butter.
And it is gonna be delicious.
Everything's ready.
It's time to assemble our cake.
(upbeat music)
I am so excited.
This cake is so tender and amazing.
And you can see the cake strips I used
let it bake up completely flat.
I'm gonna add one cup of this amazing frosting right on top.
And this cake, by the way, is so easy to decorate.
It just so happens to look very fancy and beautiful
because of all the specks of the browned butter
in the frosting.
And this crown of really easy sugared thyme.
Spread that one cup of frosting into a thin layer.
Fantastic.
And now I have 1/3 of a cup of apple butter.
You can buy some.
There's actually a delicious apple butter recipe
in the book too.
I love making apple butter at home
because it basically makes your entire house filled
with a mega apple pie smell.
It's so good. (upbeat music)
And then the apple butter itself is delicious.
Spread this out into a thin layer.
And now we're gonna add this top layer on,
just like that.
And we have a lot of frosting to add
onto the top and onto the side.
You can add it all on top and swoop it down.
Or you can use a piping bag like I am.
If you use a piping bag,
it just helps you not have any crumbs
or worry about a crumb coat.
Pro tip, if you put this in a big glass,
you can just easily add it in.
Or you can fumble around with it for minutes at a time
'cause you don't feel like it.
Totally been sneaking bites off camera.
That frosting is delicious.
Spread this out into a nice thick layer.
If you're making this cake
and you notice your frosting is a little bit bubbly,
go ahead and just whip it up
and it'll get nice and smooth again.
You can't let any frosting sit for too long
or it loses its wonderful consistency.
I'm piping this onto the side.
Just get as much coverage as you can.
And we'll smooth the rest out.
Last bit of frosting.
Smooth it out
and then you can give it a good swoop.
(upbeat music)
(John hums)
Now for the fun part, swoop to your heart's content.
It should just be kind of nice and organic.
Full of energy.
So swooping is so easy.
I like to go kind of in up and down motions on the side.
It gives you to cake a ton of character
and has that grandma vibe that I love.
Now it's time for our beautiful crown of crystallized thyme.
Just place it right on top.
And you're gonna weave the pieces together
and also create some height so it comes up off the edge.
When you do this, you're gonna create a base layer
and then you can add a little bit more height
with the additional layers.
Unless you have the most amazing fresh thyme
that's really branchy and has a lot of dimension.
(upbeat music)
Give your cake a slice and it's ready to enjoy.
(upbeat music)
That explodes in your mouth
with all the flavors of fall.
The browned butter,
the maple syrup, the apple butter, all the spices.
It's working together to make some autumnal magic happen.
I hope you get a chance to try this recipe from my book.
Link in the description box below.
And if you like this video,
check out my fall playlist.
(upbeat music)