Apple Butter Spice Cake

One of the things I like best about moving every two years is the opportunity to purge. It’s amazing some of the things that find their way to the back of cupboards and closets. And now that my husband will be retiring from the Navy next week, and another move to who knows where is on the horizon, I’m trying to use up random stuff in my cupboards. Like the jar of apple butter I’ve had forever. Apparently that stuff doesn’t go bad in the fridge since it’s been sitting in there for a very long time. Lucky for that or I would never have made this absolutely delicious Apple Butter Spice Cake!

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with the apple butter. I knew I would never eat enough toast to use it up so I did a quick google search and came across an apple butter spice cake from eatingwell.com that sounded really good. So why not make a cake? Sounded like a good plan to me. Let me tell you, this was one super moist, super tasty cake! Both my husband and I really enjoyed it and so did the folks in his office. The original recipe called for raisins which I’m sure would be awesome in this cake but I didn’t have any. I did have a couple of apples so I just substituted diced apples instead. It also said to bake it in an 8×8 inch pan but I used a bunt pan and it baked just fine in it. I made a simple glaze with powder sugar and apple liqueur to top the cake. I think an additional drizzle of caramel syrup would be fantastic! Or even a brown sugar glaze. Oh the possibilities!

Apple Butter Spice Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake:

1 T butter, melted
1 C. apple butter
¾ C. packed light brown sugar
3 T. vegetable oil
½ apple, peeled, diced
½ C. buttermilk
1 lg. egg
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. salt

For the Glaze:

1 C. powdered sugar
2 tsp. apple liqueur
2 T. milk or half & half

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a bundt pan with no stick cooking spray.
Combine melted butter, apple butter, brown sugar and oil in bowl and whisk until smooth. Add diced apples (or ½ c. raisins) buttermilk, egg, and vanilla and mix well. Add remainder of dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into bundt pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool about 10 minutes, invert on serving platter and drizzle glaze over top.

To make the glaze: