Whether it’s an apple on a teacher’s desk at the start of a school year or a family outing to a nearby orchard to pick apples, there’s something about the fall season that just makes us think about apples! Disneyland Hotel’s Steakhouse 55 offers a dessert that will put excellent use to apples that you’ve just picked… or bought at your local grocer or farmer’s market—Warm Apple Butter Cake. Our friends at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are featuring this recipe in their new cookbook, Even More Delicious Disney Desserts, and we think you’ll enjoy making it as much as guests of the Disneyland Resort enjoy eating it.
So how ’bout them apples?
Steakhouse 55’s Warm Apple Butter Cake
With an “Old Hollywood” ambience and black-and-white photos of stars lining the walls, Steakhouse 55 celebrates an era when fine dining was de rigeur. Baked in ramekins with each cake topped with warm caramelized apples, caramel glaze, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s a classic sweet ending.
Ingredients
Makes 15 individual cakes
Caramelized Apples
2 whole Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Jack Daniels Caramel Glaze
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon Jack Daniels bourbon
1 cups heavy cream
Apple Butter Cake
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
8 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 cups plus 1 teaspoon buttermilk
Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Dried apple slices, for garnish (optional)
Preparation
For caramelized apples:
- Cut apples into thin slices.
- Melt butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat; add apples and sugar.
- Cook apples until golden and softened. Set aside to cool.
For Jack Daniels caramel glaze:
- Combine brown sugar and butter in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir continuously until sugar dissolves.
- Simmer over medium heat without stirring or touching pan, until mixture is thick and dark amber in color, about 10 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat. Carefully whisk in bourbon and heavy cream. Mixture will bubble vigorously and release very hot steam.
- Pour caramel into a bowl to cool; set aside.
For cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 15 (3/4-cup-capacity) ramekins; set aside.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- Whisk together sugar, eggs and egg yolks, and melted butter in a separate large bowl, until well combined.
- Combine buttermilk and almond extract in a small bowl; set aside.
- Fold a third of flour mixture into egg mixture. Stir in half of buttermilk mixture. Fold in another third of flour mixture, then add remaining buttermilk mixture. Fold in remaining flour mixture.
- Ladle 1/2 cup cake batter into prepared ramekins. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of cakes comes out clean.
To serve:
- While cakes are warm, carefully remove from ramekins onto a serving plate.
- Divide caramelized apples among tops of cakes. Spoon Jack Daniels Glaze over top of apples and cake.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream and garnish with dried apple slices, if desired.
