Apple-Almond Coffee Cake

I do like coffee cake.  It's really just a large, sweet, rectangular muffin--and its shape allows you to choose the size piece you want much more easily than in the case of a muffin.  Then again, it also lets you take just a tiny piece more, and then some more...

This was the first time I'd tried this recipe, and it's quite tasty.  The bulk of the cake is just apples, cooked to perfection: soft and juicy but with still a bit of crunch.  The brown sugar on top sinks into the batter as the cake bakes, forming a slightly crispy, slightly caramely topping.

The intensely sweet topping, however, tips the cake a bit too far to the sugary side (apparently a recurrent coffee cake problem--does everyone want coffee cake to make them feel as if their teeth will fall out?).  In future efforts, I am going to reduce the amount of sugar both in the topping and in the cake itself.  I would also increase the slivered almonds.

Apple-Almond Coffee Cake

(adapted from The Vegan Feast Kitchen)

makes 1 9x13" cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup wholewheat flour

1/2 c white flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

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2 cups chopped apples

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1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 TB corn oil

3/4 c brown sugar (I used 1 c, and it was too sweet)

7/8 cup nondairy milk

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TOPPING:

1/3 cup brown sugar (1/2 c was too much)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup sliced almonds (I used 1/4 c, and it was not quite enough)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 9x13" cake pan.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the apples. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.  Then, add wet to dry, stirring as briefly as possible. Spread into prepared pan.
3. Mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the cake. Bake 35 minutes. Test for doneness. Cool on a rack and serve right out of the pan, cut into squares.