Fresh Apple Cake for One

This is a family favorite of my friend Rachel Craig. She begged and danced around and pled her case for months. So finally I veganized the recipe and cut it down to suit one ravenous consumer. (I did share it with her. I’m only a little mean around the edges.) But this is delicious, and I will make it again and again, whenever the cake craving hits.

For the Cake:

2 ½ teaspoons flax seed meal

1 TBLSP water

½ cup all-purpose flour, sifted

5 TBLSP plus one teaspoon granulated sugar

A pinch of salt

A pinch of baking soda

A shake of nutmeg

4 TBLSP canola oil

3 ½ TBLSP almond milk (or the non-dairy milk of your choice)

½ cup peeled, quartered, and thinly sliced apple (Grannysmith, or other tart apple)

2 ½ TBLSP chopped pecans

For the Frosting:

3 TBLSP vegan cream cheese, softened

4 teaspoons vegan butter, softened

A slosh of vanilla extract

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

3 TBLSP chopped pecans for decorating or putting into the frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and flour two ramekins or two spaces in a muffin tin. I thought it would be fun to use a small loaf pans to get a rectangle shape. Experiment!

For the Cake:

1.  Mix flax seed meal and water in a small bowl. It will get all viscous and gloppy while you’re preparing the other ingredients.
2. In another small bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and nutmeg. Add in the flax glop, and the oil, and milk. Mix it until it’s fairly smooth. It will be a thick and sticky batter.
3. Add in the apples and pecans and stir until well combined.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins or pans.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
6. When it’s cooled for 5 minutes, remove it from the pan and let it cool the rest of the way on a rack.

Let it cool completely. Tra-la-la! Don’t frost it early! Fiddle-dee-dee! You’ve got to wait until it’s cool! Hey-nonny-nonny!

For the Frosting:

1. Combine the cream cheese and butter in a small bowl. Add the vanilla extract to make it a bit easier.
2. Add the powdered sugar and stir enthusiastically until it’s frosting-textured.
3. If you want to, add the pecans and combine, but not for too long. You don’t want to crumble the pecans too much. I like to put them on the outside instead, though.
4. Refrigerate until the cake is completely cooled.

To Assemble the Cake:

1. Once the cake is completely cooled, spread the frosting over the top of one cake. It will be bumpy. It’s a feature. Luxuriate in it. You might have to slice off the puffy tops of one or both cakes to make them nestle nicely. (As evidenced by the photos, I thought of this step AFTER I’d frosted them.)
2. Place the other cake on top of the frosted one, and frost the sides and top.
3. Decorate with pecan pieces, apple slices, or you could even leave it plain!

I am a terrible cake froster. There’s documented evidence of this fact. So I doubled the frosting recipe and was rather generous with it and put the pecans on the outside to make up for this horrible deficiency.