1large apple(see headnote; peeled and roughly chopped)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a 9-inch square (or round) baking pan, or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
In a small bowl, stir together the ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon.
In another small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat the ⅓ cup of sugar with the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture alternately, in about 2 batches each, beating after each addition just until almost incorporated into a batter — at the end, you still want to see streaks of flour and milk in the thinnish batter.
Fold in the chopped apple just until everything is combined. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature in squares (or wedges)
Video
Notes
If you have a 9-inch springform pan, you will be able to take the cake out of the pan before serving, without losing any of the cinnamon sugar topping.
Make this cake with all different types of apples over the fall, and see which one you like best!
This keeps, wrapped at room temperature, for a couple of days.
Some good cooking apples are:
Granny Smith (green, sour, tart)
Cortland (red skin, bright white flesh, a bit tart)
Empire (mottled red, sweet-tart)
Golden Delicious (yellow, pointy bottom bumps, sweet and mellow tasting)
McIntosh (red with some green coloration, mild, less firm)