Thursday, June 14, 2012

Apple, Banana, Cranberry and Almond Crumb Cake

Yum
Here is one of my baking experiments again that turned out fantastic. My husband and mother really could not believe how good this cake was and I couldn't be more thrilled. I had some golden delicious apples and very ripe bananas I wanted to use up so I decided to pair them up in a a cake. I added some dried cranberries for good measure and topped it with a cinnamon almond crumb topping and glaze.  The results were better than I could imagine because the cake came out incredibly flavorful and moist.  


Ingredients: 
3 large golden delicious apples (about 3 1/2 cups diced)
1 cup dried cranberries
3 bananas mashed
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup white sugar
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs honey  (or substitute more brown sugar)
1/4 cup milk

Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
2Tbs of butter

 Glaze 1/2 cup sugar 1 Tbs water


Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together:  flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix the wet ingredients: mashed bananas, eggs, oil, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add the finely diced apples and dried cranberries to the wet ingredients and then gently fold in the dry ingredients.   Pour the batter into a well sprayed or greased pan.  I used a 9 inch spring-form pan so it would be a thick single layer cake.   Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  I actually had to play around with the timing here.  The center was still not completely set so I turned off the oven and allowed the cake to sit in the warm oven for 30 minutes and it set.  If you bake this in a 9x13 pan you may only have to bake it for 45-55 minutes.

Crumb Topping
 Mix the flour, cinnamon, sugar, butter and sliced almonds. I mixed it with my fingers and crushed some of the almonds so they were not too big. Then I topped the cake with the crumb topping half way in the baking process.

Glaze:  mix glaze and pour over warm cake. Serve warm, at room temperature or cool. Enjoy.



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