Apple Cake with German Apple & Pear Brandy

This was apple cake with German apple and pear brandy.

It's spring now. Perhaps fall and winter are the best season for apples, but now apples are available year-around and I simply like baked sweets with apples anytime. Especially when J was given a bottle of Obstbrand, a German apple and pear brandy by his friend. I was excited to think about baking something with the bavarian speciality and apples or pears or both.

I have several recipes that call for apples on my wish-to-bake list. One of them was a recipe of Heavenly Apple Cake on Food52.com. Many people have been trying the recipe and liked the output; the name appears to be not overstated. The recipe calls for apples and apple brandy to soak chopped dates. Aha! Testing the recipe by myself with the new brandy sounded more than perfect.

I halved the recipe to bake the cake in 7 inch round pan. I also replaced white sugar with coconut sugar as usual. I needed about 2 cups of roughly chopped slightly tart apples. My apple choice was Pink Lady. Each apple was kinda small. I peeled and chopped 4 of them. Well, total looked like much more than two cups, but I mixed all into the batter. That was why many apples couldn't hide into the batter and every slice of the cake was extra-packed with apples. In fact I liked this way very much.

Whipped cream topping wasn't in the recipe, but why not?

The cake was very delicious! I tasted the brandy clearly that added a very nice flavor to the cake without making it boozy. Apples were lovely tender not mussy and the warm-spiced cake part between apples was nicely moist. J and I enjoyed the cake very much. Thanks to the wonderful brandy, this was one of the best apple desserts!