Saturday, October 20, 2012

Brown butter caramel apple plum cakes

This would've been a post on baked caramel apple doughnuts if not for them active dried yeast dying out on me ^^||


I'd melted my butter and beaten 3 eggs to discover that the yeast was a goner.. I was devastated! Guess no use crying over spilled milk. On to plan b (???!!)!.. something yummy and super-easy, to ease my pain (?) ^^. 

Brown butter caramel apple plum cakes (inspired by lynna's apple donuts and blueberry muffins ^^)

180g unsalted butter
3-4 medium apples, grated
3 small plums, diced (think this could work with strawberries/raspberries/grapes too ^^)
3 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp honey
180g self-raising flour, sifted
1-2 small pinches of salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder
150g sugar (75g caster sugar + 75g brown sugar)
caramel sauce, for drizzling (make more ^^ just keep them in the fridge)

1. Melt butter over MEDIUM heat. Pay attention as the butter's boiling and crackling ~ and continue cooking until it turns clear and golden, and the milk solids have dropped to the bottom of pan. Once you see brown bits at the bottom of pan, immediately remove from heat. Leave to cool. Strain through a fine metal sieve or cheesecloth-lined strainer.

2. Grate apples and squeeze out the juices with your hands. Set aside grated apples. Dice plums and set aside.

3. Preheat oven to 180C.

4. In a bowl, beat eggs till pale and foamy (but no need till light and fluffy). Mix in honey till combined.

5. In another bowl mix sifted flour, salt, cinnamon powder and sugars together. Make a well and fold in egg mixture and brown butter till combined. Then add the grated apples and diced plums till well incorporated. Do not over beat.

6. Pour into 12-muffin/cupcake tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

7. Drizzle with caramel sauce and serve warm ^^

A-ha! Sounds familiar? That's because this is (almost-)exactly the same recipe I made recently, brown butter apple caramel cake! Not very original, eh? Sorry, didn't have much choice ^^||! It was an emergency! And all I could think of was this recipe ^^. So I just tripled the ingredients, added diced plums ('cos I didn't have enough apples ^^|| and plums were all I had ^^) and omitted the egg separation method! And voila! easy, yummy cakes to chase away the blues! ^^

Well, the addition of plums in the cakes was really nice.. it added a nice texture and tang to an already yummy cake ^^. And the cakes turned out really soft and moist despite not using the egg separation method ^^. I really, really like this easier, one-bowl-mix way! (^^)


And the kitchen smells soooo soooo wonderful ~  a whiff of heaven, perhaps? (^^)

p.s cake's pretty good on it own too.. drop the caramel if you like, for a lighter and healthier version ^^

9 comments:

Cathleen said...

Even though you couldn't have your doughnuts, these look just as good. The combination of ingredients sounds divine!

pudgy butterfly said...

these cakes are really soft, moist and good, cathleen ^^ so glad i took a chance on mixing in the eggs whole.. the cakes turned out really well and it's so much easier too! plus there's less to wash ^^!

thank you for taking the time to drop a line (^^)

Mel said...

Hello Hui
Thought of making doughnut turn out to be apple cake instead. At least you have a quick thinking to save the ingredients....for me I would be looking for a "panic button." I love caramel.... and this apple cakes must be yummy....because I have noticed in your ingredients you have honey and cinnamon which brings out the little cakes more delicious! With this ingredients, how many little cakes you can make? 12 or more? I would like to bake this one day soon as I still have some apples left.

pudgy butterfly said...

i managed to bake exactly 12 cupcakes with the standard 12-muffin/cupcake tin this time.. the last time with just apples, using one-third of this recipe, i made 6 mini cakes with a slightly smaller silicone 6-muffin mould ^^

and if you are not planning to add caramel sauce later or using green apples, maybe you might want to add another 15-25g or more, sugar.. i used sweet fuji apples, so i didn't need so much sugar ^^

p.s warning! if you become obsessed with brown butter, it's not my fault ^^

Mel said...

LOL here....on your last comment... I won't blame you but I will say many thanks for introducing this caramel brown sugar to me.

The Squishy Monster said...

I'll take 6, please =)

pudgy butterfly said...

mel ~ ^^

squishy angie ~ sorry, you're a bit too late ^^ my piggies got to them already.. and the last piece is in me happy tummy.. burp! 'xcuse me ^^ maybe we can pretend i sent you some.. it's the thought that counts, right? ^^

Lynna said...

Awww...sorry you yeast died. I`m always scared of doing that.

But this is TOTALLY AWESOME. It makes me so happy that my posts inspired you to make these. I`m totall loving these.

MUST TRY!!

pudgy butterfly said...

i love this recipe ^^! made them again (without plums) yesterday specially for my chubby pig! (^^)