Vegan apple Bundt cake with brown sugar glaze

One of the grandest feelings a cake-maker can feel is that of knowing your cake-eaters genuinely appreciate that which they are eating. I’m sure there’s a simpler way to say that but I don’t feel like finding it right now.

Last weekend, my ol’ gray-haired dad ran his first half marathon. Not too much of a stretch, given that he ran a whole 26.2 miles in the local full marathon during the 2013 season, but I think there was some accomplishment in that. And I mean, I made a three-dimensional shoe cake for the occasion (hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting, which turned out to be messier than I thought it would), so I was at least obligated to make half a shoe this time around. Maybe the other half for the next half marathon in two weeks. Or maybe I’ll just make some pancakes. Who knows.

My photoshop skills hath no equal.

And coincidentally, I made this very cake about a week before the race itself. It was a recipe I had saved in my files long ago, when Sally of “Baking Addiction” fame first came out with her cookbook and I, as a hardcore fangirl and aspiring baking blogger myself (and hoo boy we all know what came of that), read through the entire Amazon preview in hopes of gleaning some free recipes (like there wasn’t a whole internet’s worth of them already).  I then proceeded to screenshot the first recipe I saw, an apple “bread” recipe filled with copious amounts of sugar and buttah and all things desserty and delicious and not at all bread-y. My mother and I had a good chuckle over that title. And so that little screenshot festered in my files for, oh, about a year, until this fall when I realized that hey! apples are really fresh these days, so I might as well try that “bread”!

I baked up as described, in a loaf pan (presumably to sustain the illusion of breadiness), and slathered it in creamy, brown sugary glaze; and found, to my delight, that good ol’ dad just loved that bread any time of the day. What to do? Make it again, of course, but in a Bundt pan! And then dad will come home from his half marathon eagerly awaiting some form of cake and find that Baby June had ever so graciously deemed that apple “bread” worthy of making not once, but twice, for our very own pleasure! 

Such an honor.

And did my family take advantage of it—that cake was gone faster than you could say “is this healthy?” It’s heart-rending, really. You can’t know how happy-making it is to see everyone gobbling up your own treats while offering up enthusiastic declarations of one’s own culinary competence. I was starting to get sentimental. That’s really something. Baby June isn’t really the type to have emotions about things. 

I CAN'T HANDLE IT source

Then, of course, Sally had to go and post the same recipe on her blog, except in—wait for it—Bundt cake form mere days after I made a near-identical cake myself! The fuck, Sally? Messing with my vibe here?

To be fair, it is a different recipe. The cake here is not as tall as a traditional cake because it is the same volume as a loaf pan, which is not quite equal to the volume of a Bundt pan. So there’s that.

But still. 

Many tears were shed that day.

I will say that vegan cake is always better than, well, regular cake. It’s like cake on steroids: it’s really fucking swole and all, but then it gives you acne and makes your hair fall out and—okay that wasn’t the best analogy. You get what I mean.

Here’s the recipe.

_____________

Vegan apple Bundt cake with brown sugar glaze

Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction cookbook

Ingredients

Cake

60 grams • coconut oil, softened • ¼ cup

180 grams • nondairy yogurt or silken tofu • ¾ cup

63 grams • dark brown sugar • 1/3 cup

130 grams • granulated sugar • 2/3 cup

110 grams • banana, mashed • ½ cup

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

250 grams • all-purpose flour • 2 cups

8 grams • baking powder • 2 teaspoons

2 grams • baking soda • ½ teaspoons

4 grams • ground cinnamon • ½ tablespoon

4 grams • salt • ¾ teaspoon

190 grams • apple, peeled and diced • 1 large

140 grams • chopped pecans • 1 cup

Glaze

215 grams • dark brown sugar • 1 cup

30 grams • coconut oil • 2 tablespoons

80 grams • coconut milk, full-fat • 1/3 cup

60 grams • powdered sugar • ½ cup

Instructions

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F and greasing a Bundt cake pan.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat butter, nondairy yogurt or tofu, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until creamed, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add banana and vanilla. Mix until well-combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually spoon flour mixture into butter mixture just until combined. Fold in apples and pecans.

Pour batter into Bundt pan and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

To make glaze, start by combining brown sugar, coconut oil, and coconut milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring consistently, and allow to boil for one minute. Turn down heat and simmer for another minute. Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar. Let cool for three minutes before using.

To finish, remove cake from Bundt pan and drizzle with glaze. Slice and munch.

_____________

Notice the strategic placement of wax paper beneath the drizzlin' department. 

Because this is a “bread”-in-disguise, you may notice that the crumb is a bit more reminiscent of a quick bread than a fine-crumbed cake. And that’s okay, because it’s still delicious and plenty sweet. And there’s a metric shit-ton of glaze. Nothing not to love about that.