Crapple Cake

I experimented a bit with the Tropical Coffee Cake recipe, and would love to share how it came out. But Scott is at work and I promised I wouldn't eat it without him. So far, all I can tell you is that it smells delicious, and it's so pretty!




As you can see in the photo, the coconut is still there. I replaced the nutmeg with cinnamon, and changed the pineapple (which was supposed to be mango but never was) for granny smith apple and a handful of Craisins that were nuked with some apple juice to reconstitute them a bit.


Strangely enough, I grossly overestimated the number of apples required to yield 1 cup of chunks. See, in my mind, a whole apple would almost fit in a cup. That meant that after removing the skin and the core, the apple would only fill 1/2 cup. Amazingly enough, chopping the apple actually made it take up MORE space! The bonus to this lesson is that I had a bowl of chopped apple and cranberry bits while the cake was in the oven.

I'll be back in the morning with the results. Fingers crossed...

Update: While the Crapple Cake isn't necessarily crap-tastic, it also isn't apple-icious. It is decidedly bland. At first, Scott thought it wasn't sweet enough, but I just had a piece for breakfast and didn't find it un-sweet. I know for sure that the cranberries add absolutely no flavor - just a splash of color. Perhaps the pineapple added more flavor than the apple did. Maybe the cinnamon couldn't hold its own in place of the nutmeg. I guess I should have looked up the seasoning that goes into an apple pie and used that for reference.

On the bright side, the apples cooked through nicely. The cake is still moist and dense. If I can get the seasoning right, and maybe replace the healthy coconut on top with a buttery crumble, this will be a helluva apple cake.