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The Secret Ingredient That Makes This Apple Cake Irresistible!
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The Secret Ingredient That Makes This Apple Cake Irresistible!

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Ready to elevate your apple cake game? Today, I’m revisiting an incredible French-inspired apple cake recipe that’s even better this time around! With browned butter, lightly caramelized apples, and a splash of rhum agricole (or any brown spirit you have), this cake is rich, fluffy, and full of deep, nutty flavours. Whether you’re a fan of classic French baking or just love a good homemade apple cake, this recipe is a must-try! Plus, the history of rhum agricole adds a fascinating twist to this delicious dessert. Let me know what spirit you’d use in your version!

Ingredients:
125 mL (½ cup) butter,
5 mL (1 tsp) cinnamon
4 large apples, cored and sliced
175 mL (¾ cup) white sugar
2 mL (½ tsp) coarse salt
30 mL (2 Tbsp) aged Rhum (agricole) Cognac or Brandy
150 mL (⅔ cup) all-purpose flour
5 mL (1 tsp) baking powder
2 large eggs
10 mL (2 tsp) pure vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
Grease a 9” springform pan with butter, and dust evenly with flour.
In a fry pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter; swirling the pan frequently, cook until the butter browns and has a nutty aroma.
Pour the melted butter into a heatproof bowl – don’t scrape out the pan.
Stir the cinnamon into the butter and set aside.
Toss all of the apples, 1 Tbsp of the sugar and salt into the still-hot pan and cook over medium-high heat.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples have released their moisture and are starting to brown.
Add the Rhum and cook until evaporated (or Flambé).
Remove from the heat and allow the apples to cool while you make the cake batter.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
In a large bowl, whip together the brown butter and eggs, vanilla and the remaining sugar.
Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture until smooth.
Fold the cooled apples into the batter.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake until it’s a deep brown, 55 to 60 minutes.
Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
Release from the pan and cool in the fridge before serving.

**** All English recipes for this French Apple cake call for rum, spelled R-U-M. All French recipes for this cake call for rhum, spelled R-H-U-M.
This isn’t a case of a French Vs. English spelling of the same word… Nope. Rum and Rhum are two different spirits; both from the Caribbean, one made on the English Islands from molasses (rum) and the other from French / Spanish islands made from fresh pressed cane juice (rhum). They taste completely different.

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39 Comments

  1. @GlenAndFriendsCooking

    Oooops!
    Looks like I set up the queue incorrectly and released the wrong video this morning. The Old Cookbook Show will return as regularly scheduled next Sunday.
    Thanks for watching.

  5. @annalockwood3021

    I will soon be using up the last of the bottle of applejack I bought years ago from an Alton Brown suggestion, so I am glad you talked about the rhum agricole in this video. Sounds like just the sort of thing I would enjoy experimenting with in my baking.

  8. @allwet66

    Your Sunday Morning is going like mine feels 🙂 and yes i know it's not Sunday for Glen – get out of my Reality

  9. @emilybilbow4990

    My sister made an apple cake and it was not good… she’s discovered she’s allergic to eggs and is now trying alternative recipes… any suggestions would be appreciated, or sites with recipes that are easy and use normal ingredients as she has two children as well

  11. @LolaChacona

    More than likely the first time you made it turned out to be more of a "coffee cake" texture – more dense. This looks more like a regular cake texture with apples. What type of apple did you use? With all that sugar, I think I would prefer an apple that's more tart & firm, but not a granny smith.

  15. @markiangooley

    Most rhum agricole I can get is white. It’s somewhat hard to get where I am: one store has it from Marie-Galante.

    I was expecting quince as the secret ingredient!

  18. @monkeymanstones1

    I'll definitely have to give this one a go. I'll make 2 – 1) Flambé and 2) Alcohol remains (because the Alcohol soluble flavors may come out a in an acceptable way).

  19. @timothyjohnston4083

    I thought this was going to be like an apple upside-down cake… I wonder how it would turn out if you spread the apple mixture on the bottom of the cake pan and spread the cake batter on top.; then bake; and turn out onto a cake plate, apple-side up.

  25. @draig2614

    Coincidentally, I made a French Apple Cake last Monday! I used English style rum since that is what I have (and apples rather than onions lol). The recipe I followed was almost like chunks of apple barely held together by the batter. The combination of apples and rum and butter can’t be beat!

    I made a double batch and baked half of it in a round cake tin to take to Thanksgiving dinner with friends on Monday, and baked the other half as cupcakes that I am enjoying each day with my lunch.

  27. @lindalankowski474

    This is similar to my Mom's apple cake. She dices wr apples, rather than the cubes Glen uses. Maybe that's why she doesn't have to pre-cook the apples. I have already switched to butter from veg oil. I will have to try browning my butter and adding rhum, or brandy, or calvados, or bourbon, or…

  33. @DerekArmsden

    The flambé step, or even just cooking something with booze in it, does not burn off much of the evaporating alcohol. How long the dish is cooked at the boiling point of alcohol (173°F) is key. After 15min you still have 40% of the alcohol remaining. Even simmering for over 2 hours will leave about 5%.

  34. @midhudsonmarketing6484

    Apple cake couldn't have been a better substitute for the old cookbook show. And as always I laugh when you lick the beaters/whisk with the raw egg, sugar, vanilla and brown butter mixture which you claimed was your new "favorite thing"! Love your videos, Glen!!!! – Marilyn

  35. @abefrohman1759

    In the early 70s a friend of mine had a grandmother from Oklahoma move in with them. She made a cornbread cake that she added applesauce and molasses to and it was surprisingly good. I have no idea the ratios but I thought it was something you might like looking into.

  36. @GreggJones-s8b

    One of our favorite family treats is "cocoa apple cake." It is pretty much the same recipe but with cocoa and chocolate chips. We always make 1 1/2 recipes so there is plenty of batter eat.

  37. @brianbenson3669

    Mmm … how about taking this recipe in a maple direction? Use acerum or another maple spirit in place of rhum, maple essence instead of vanilla, some maple sugar combined with the white sugar (or light brown sugar?) ?

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