Homemade Saturday: Gluten Free Hail to Harvest Cake

 Yes, it looks like winter outside but that does NOT mean you have to give up on the fall desserts yet.  Right now our garage is full of apples, and our porch holds a few pumpkins.. So for last Sunday's dessert I mixed up this Gluten Free apple chocked full, raisin studded, pumpkin flavored, super moist, glazed cake which I am dubbing the Hail to Harvest Cake.  (Cheesy I know, but a shorter name anyway) :)

For those of you that are not Gluten Free, and don't have a stash of Almond Flour laying around, I think you could easily use regular flour and have it turn out just fine!

Hail to Harvest Cake

1. Place 1 - 1 1/2 cups of cooked pumpkin, 1 cup of honey (or half and half honey and sugar) and 4 eggs into a blender or food processor.  Blend for at least a minute until smooth.  

2. Add 2 cups almond flour, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 1/2 tsp of Baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp of cloves. Blend until well combined.

3. Grease 2 round cake pans and put a circle of parchment paper (or wax paper) in the bottom of both. DO NOT skip this step!!! If you forget the parchment paper, your cake will stick, fall apart, and you will have to squish it back together on your plate... yes this is experience speaking. :)

4. Scrape half of your batter into each greased cake pan.

5. Peel and chop 2 cups of apples.  Sprinkle 1 cup on each of the cakes, along with 1/2 cup of raisins.

With a spatula gently mix the apples and raisins into the batter.  This is slightly unconventional, but it works!

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

Let the cakes cool completely. Then if you like, you can make a quick glaze with 1 cup of powder sugar, a little cinnamon, and a tablespoon or two of milk. Spread some on the first layer, top with the second cake, and then drizzle the rest of the glaze over top.

As I mentioned this is a super-moist, fally-aparty cake, but oh so tasty!  And if you wanted it for more of an afternoon snack (or hey, why not breakfast!) you could put it in a 9x13, or half the recipe and use a 8x8 (like the original recipe) and skip the glaze.

What ever way you decide to do it, I do hope you enjoy!!

~Chs