Apple ‘Donut’ Cakes with Honey and Brown Butter

It all started with spying a box of apples that have been sitting in my fridge for the past couple of weeks or so. You see, I don’t tend to receive many complimentary goodies from anyone but once in a blue moon, a random package would arrive on my doorstep unexpectedly. I love surprises and what I liked most of all about this, is the fact that it came with no strings attached and no pressure or requests to pay back any favour to the ‘senders’ and it didn’t even have a note to say who it was from (maybe they forgot to add the letter?).

So this particular random gift was a box of Jazz Apples. A quick Google bash and I learnt that these Jazz babies are a cross breed of apples with the crunch and ‘sturdiness’ of Braeburn and the sweetness of Gala. I’m not really sure what to make of mutant fruits yet but admittedly, they were delicious. I love baking with apples but the autumn weather was too warm for the likes of pies, crumbles and my usual arsenal when it comes to fruity baking.

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with the nutty gorgeousness of brown butter (or beurre noisette) and thanks to one lovely lady, I’ve also been harbouring a donut craving of the worst kind. Throw in a few more basic ingredients and before I knew it, I was measuring, guessing and praying that it’d work.

Enter awesome ‘donut’ cakes. A (thankfully) soft and moist apple, cinnamon, honey and brown butter cake rolled in cinnamon sugar. And you’d be pleased to know that this requires no mixer, no whisking and no vigorous stirring action. It was incredibly easy for a lazy day. And I’m thrilled to see that they turned out edible and were quickly devoured by the loved ones who wholeheartedly gave them the thumbs up.

Apple ‘Donut’ Cakes with Honey and Brown Butter

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter
190g self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
85g brown sugar
85g honey
2 large eggs
2 medium to large apples, peeled and grated (I used Jazz but Granny Smith, Braeburn or Royal Gala will be fine)

110g caster sugar (or 1/2 cup)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly grease a 12 x 125ml capacity muffin tin. First measure the butter to get started on the beurre noisette.

Sift flour and cinnamon into a large bowl and stir in the brown sugar until combined. Mix in the honey and eggs then add the cooled brown butter and stir to combine. Squeeze out excess moisture from grated apples and gently fold through the batter.

Divide amongst the muffin tin (batter shouldn’t come up higher than halfway) and bake for 15-17 minutes until golden and skewer comes out clean.

Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon until completely combined in a bowl or shallow plate.

Immediately turn cakes out onto a wire rack and toss through the sugar and cinnamon mix to coat and cool cakes completely on wire rack.

If your cakes have cooled down too much the sugar isn’t going to stick so if you wish, you can brush the cakes lightly with lightly beaten egg white and then coat in the sugar and leave to dry and set on rack.

They’re best eaten on the day but cakes can be stored in an airtight container. The sugar will melt a bit in storage but a quick roll in more cinnamon sugar should return them to full donutty glory.

Tagged as: Apple, Beurre Noisette, Brown Butter, Cake, Cupcakes, Donut, Doughnut, Honey, Jazz Apples, Muffins