Fall is in the air… or at least in Charleston, SC it will be soon! What do you think of when you think of fall? I think of apple cider, I think of Yate’s Cider Mill in Rochester, MI. One of my all time favorite places to grab some great crisp, sweet apples, a cup of apple cider, aaaaahhhhhh, and one of those sinful cider mill doughnuts rolled in granulated sugar and cinnamon. Ah, wish they were right around the corner, but its probably a good thing they are far away… VERY far away. If you want a dessert that isn’t too bad for you and has the bonus of making your house smell FAN-TAS-TIC! This is the recipe for you! It’s from Cooking Light magazine and you can click HERE to go to MyRecipes.com where you can quickly print the recipe, otherwise, see below! This recipe was featured in 1997, it was the reason I asked for a springform pan for Christmas that year. The recipe was updated in 2000, it’s fabulous and you know what’s good for you I think yout’ll absolutely love it! The only change I made was that I used low fat cream cheese, not fat free… fat free is chalky in my opinion. But I haven’t tried it in this recipe. I need to… I also used butter instead of margarine. ok, here goes…

UPDATE 2020: The cake seems very sweet to me, I changed a few things from the Cooking Light original (link above): I use low fat cream cheese, butter and less sugar. I also used Honey Crisp apples (fabulous!!) and more cinnamon that it calls for in the cake and topping, but that’s a personal preference. I edited my changes in the version below. 

I LOVE Cooking Light recipes! I have so many favorites and this is another one!

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup sugar (DIVIDED)
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) low fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2+ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups chopped peeled Honey Crisp apples (about 2 large)
• Olive oil

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Beat 1 cup sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; set aside.
• Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, and beat at low speed until blended.
• Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. In a bowl, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon/sugar mixture with the apple slices; stir to coat. Then add apple mixture to batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with olive oil or butter, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake pulls away from the sides of pan. Immediately run a knife around the edge of the cake and then cool cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.
• Cooking Light Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the baking time by 5 minutes.

🍎You won’t believe how good this will make the entire house smell!!

✍️ Until next time…