Invisible apple cake

I saw an apple cake recipe on Instagram I wanted to try to recreate, but they left out the measurements. How much sugar? How much flour? So I did some testing. And now it's my new favorite treat.

I was hoping to take a better photo of one of these cakes in the early morning light, but both of these were devoured by friends and family before I was able.

My Instagram algorithm knows me well. It feeds me a steady stream of surfers surfing; doctors doctoring; Trump falling asleep in meetings; citizens fighting back against the horrors of ICE; DIY home-renovators turning IKEA bookshelves into fancy-looking library built-ins; and dozens upon dozens of fast-talking chefs creating easy-to-make dinners and desserts that are edited together so fast you have to watch seven times—engagement! social media’s annoying currency—just to understand how the hell they made it.

One such dessert, the invisible apple cake, recently caught my eye.

@chef.eric.explains

Eric Haessler on Instagram: "I’ve made this French Apple Cake a…

A healthy, no fuss cake made mostly from layers of thinly-sliced apples and protein-rich eggs? Yes, please, sign me up! Menopause has given me a few uninvited rolls of extra belly fat—despite daily workouts and my 3x-a-week lifting protocol—but I love dessert too much to give it up completely. Sweatpants exist, and depriving myself of small joys is not how I plan to live out the last quarter of my life. Still, I prefer a somewhat “healthy” dessert to one that’s mostly sugar, flour, and butter, and this apple cake seemed to fit that bill perfectly.

Unfortunately, the video above, which I have definitely watched more than twenty times, did not give the proper quantities for each ingredient. So I did a little digging online for similar recipes, followed by some experimenting in the kitchen with various sized measuring cups and spoons; the presence or absence of baking powder; whether to use 2, 3, or 4 eggs; and whether to jelly the top of the cake for added sweetness or to just dust it with powdered sugar instead, and I have hit upon the quantities, flourishes, and custardy consistency that taste most pleasing to my palate.

In fact, I love this cake so much, I will not only be making it weekly until I croak, I wanted to record it here, mostly so I can always find it, but also for my friends who’ve now eaten it and asked for the recipe, as well as as a gift to my subscribers.

So, without further ado, let’s do this:

Invisible Apple Cake

Ingredients (for one cake, but if you’re making one, you might as well make two, because, trust me, they go fast.)

7-8 Granny Smith apples

1 lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt

3 large eggs (or 4 small ones)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of whole milk

Some powdered sugar, for dusting the top

Instructions

1. Heat your oven to 375°. (If you’re using a convection oven, use 350° instead.)

2. Line the long sides of your loaf pan with parchment paper, coat the short sides with butter or cooking spray, and put the loaf pan on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any overflow. It should look like this. (Like I said, you might as well double this recipe, so here are two examples.)

   

3. Peel your apples—no need to core them—then just slice them super thin on a mandoline. I have a cheap, totally functional mandoline, and I used the #2 setting. Make 8 circular slices on one side, turn the apple 180°, make 8 circular slices on the other side, then make 8 slices each on the now rectangular remaining sides. Meaning each normal sized apple will yield 16 circles and 16 rectangles, more or less. Place your slices in a large bowl with the juice of your squeezed lemon as you work, making sure to turn and coat them with the juice as each group of slices are added, whether with your hands or a spoon. Save and put aside around 10-15 of your favorite circles to decorate the top.

4. Melt the butter (on the stove or in the microwave, whatever you prefer), place it in a medium-sized bowl and let it sit for a couple of minutes to cool down. Add the sugar and the salt and use a whisk to combine them with the butter. Then add the eggs and vanilla. (Keep whisking away.) Add the flour bit by bit until you have a smooth consistency. Now it’s time to add your milk. Your batter is done. So easy, right?

5. Pour the batter over the apples and make sure they’re all coated. I found that this was easier to do with my hands than with a spoon, as the spoon tended to break the delicate slices into smaller pieces, but you do you.

6. Using either a slotted spoon (so the excess batter drips back into the bowl and not into the pan) or your hands, add the apples to the pan. No need to be fussy about this. I can’t tell you how many recipes I saw that said you had to add the apple slices one by one, meticulously and neatly. This is just not true. Just make sure the apples are flat, and gravity will do the rest.

7. Take your special round apple slices you’ve set aside and decorate the top in any way you find pleasing. Pour the remaining batter over the top of these.

8. Bake for between 60-90 minutes in a standard oven or between 55-65 minutes in a convection oven. I used a convection oven and set a timer for 55 minutes, just to check on the consistency, and I kept checking every few minutes or so thereafter if it wasn’t ready. Some of your top slices will brown around the edges. This is good. You want this. You just don’t want them to burn.

9. Place the loaf pan with the finished cake in it on a cooling rack and let it cool down in the pan. No need to remove it from the pan until you serve the cake. It’ll stay warm for a couple of hours that way while you make the rest of your meal. When you do want to serve it on a platter, use a butter knife to unstick the short sides from the pan, then lift it out with the parchment paper, place it on a platter, remove the paper, and dust some powdered sugar on top using a small fine mesh strainer. To slice, use a serrated bread knife, if you have one. Add a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if you’re feeling fancy.

10. EAT THE CAKE! Always eat the cake. That’s my motto, and I’m sticking to it. If you do manage to have some leftover apple cake, it should stay fresh in the fridge for five days. Or so I hear. I’ve yet to experience this mythical cake-sticking-around-for-more-than-two days thing. Bonus, if you can keep a few pieces in the fridge: it makes a perfect breakfast, either cold or warmed up for one minute in the microwave.