Miso Apple Spice Cake

5 from 3 votes

Servings: 16 pieces

Author: Lisa Lin

This apple spice cake is filled with warm spices, such as cinnamon, coriander, ginger, and cardamom. White miso and rum add layers of flavor to this delightful fall cake that’s not too sweet.

I recommend measuring out all the ingredients for the cake ahead of time. There are a few steps in this recipe that are time sensitive (like making the caramel glaze), so it is better to have the ingredients ready to go. To give the cake more visual interest, I used 1 green apple, and 1 red apple for the topping. Refer to Note 1 below for suggestions on which apples to use. If you'd rather not make your own blend of spices like I listed below, you can use 2 1/2 teaspoons of a store-bought apple pie or pumpkin pie spice blend instead.

Recipe makes an 8x8-inch cake.

Prep Time45

Cook Time45

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (180g) Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour, volume measured by spoon-and-sweep method
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander, preferably freshly ground from seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, preferably freshly ground from seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Apple Topping & Glaze

2 medium apples, (see note 1 about apple varieties)
2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon white miso, (see note 2)

Wet Ingredients

1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon white miso
2 large eggs
1/3 cup (63g) safflower or vegetable oil, (any neutral oil works)
3/4 cup (185g) full-fat Greek yogurt, (see note 3)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum, optional (see note 4)
1/3 cup (66g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (66g) packed light brown sugar

Optional Toppings

powdered sugar
whipped cream, (see note 5 for recipe)

Instructions

Preheat Oven & Prepare Pan

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and position an oven rack to the center position.
Grease an 8x8-inch square pan with oil (see note 6). Line the pan with parchment paper so that it has an overhang of about 2 inches on two opposite sides. If you have clips, clip down the overhang so that it doesn’t get in the way when you pour batter into the pan. You’ll remove the clips before baking the cake. Lightly grease the portion of parchment paper over the bottom of the pan and set it aside.

Whisk Dry Ingredients

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cinnamon, coriander, ginger, cardamom, baking powder, and baking soda. Set the bowl aside.

Prepare Apples

Slice the 2 apples into half-moon slices that are 1/4-inch thick (see photo below to see how I sliced the apple around the core). Apples tend to oxidize and turn brown pretty quickly. If you want to slow down the browning process, feel free to squeeze lemon juice over the sliced apples. The apple slices brown during the baking process anyway, so it’s not critical to add lemon juice.

Mix Wet & Dry Ingredients

In a small bowl, use a spoon or a small silicone spatula to mix 1/4 cup of room temperature butter together with 1 tablespoon of miso. Once the miso is fully incorporated into the butter, melt the mixture in a microwave for 15 to 20 seconds or inside a saucepan. (See note 7)
In another medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, and butter and miso mixture. Next, add the Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and rum (if using) and whisk until smooth. Add the granulated and brown sugars, and mix again.
Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients all at once. Use a wooden spoon to mix the wet and dry ingredients together, until just combined. It’s okay if you see small lumps of flour in the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula, silicone spatula, or the back of a spoon to spread the batter out to an even layer.

Arrange Apples & Add Glaze

Arrange the apple slices in any pattern you like. To recreate the cross hatch pattern you see in the photo below, fan out 4 green apple slices. Carefully lay them over the batter at the top left corner of the pan, with the arc of the apple facing left. Next, fan out 4 slices of red apple and place right underneath the green apple slices with the arc facing up, like a rainbow. Continue alternating between green and red apple slices, until you reach the bottom edge of the pan. For the second column, fan out 4 red apple slices and place them to the right of the top row of green apple slices, arc facing upwards. Continue adding the green and apple slices, until the entire surface is covered with apples. When you reach the final column, you likely won’t be able to fit as many apple slices. I only had space to fit 2 green apple slices in a row, and I sliced the apples in half.
Make the caramel glaze to brush over the apples. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar in a saucepan, whisking frequently. Once the butter and sugar has melted completely and the mixture is bubbling slightly, turn the heat to low and whisk in 1/2 teaspoon of miso, until incorporated. Immediately brush this glaze over the apple slices (it stiffens up pretty quickly). I used a silicone brush and tried to brush in the same direction as the curvature of the apples. If the glaze feels stiff, reheat it over the stove.

Bake Cake

Remove any clips you used to clip down the parchment paper. Bake the cake for 25 minutes. Then, rotate the cake to ensure even baking. Continue baking the cake for another 15 to 18 minutes, until the edges of the cake are a nice golden brown color and a butter knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly.
Remove the cake from the oven. Run a butter knife along the edges of the cake that is not lined with parchment paper. This helps to ensure that the cake doesn’t stick to the pan once it cools.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes. Then grab onto the parchment paper to lift the cake from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack.
Let the cake cool for another 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the cake to garnish. Serve the cake with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. You’ll taste the rum a bit more the day the cake is baked. Refrigerate any leftover cake. See note 8 below for reheating directions.

Notes

Apple Varieties: Granny Smiths and Mutsu apples are great green apple options. For the red apples, Gala and Honeycrisp apples retained their vibrant red color the best during my recipe testing. Note that not all honeycrisp apples are red throughout the apple–it depends on how much sunshine the apples were exposed to. When buying Honeycrisp apples, I made sure to select ones that were red all around.
White Miso: I used white miso, which has a sweeter and more mellow flavor compared to red miso. The type of white miso I used comes refrigerated in a plastic tub. I did not test this recipe with other varieties of miso, so I can’t provide exact substitution suggestions.
Full-Fat Greek Yogurt: The fat from the Greek yogurt will make the cake more moist. If you don’t have it on hand, you can use low-fat Greek yogurt.
Rum Substitutions: The rum adds a nice layer of flavor that complements the spices very well. You can substitute it with 2 teaspoons of rum extract, which is alcohol free. If you don’t want to bother with the rum, just add another teaspoon of vanilla.
Whipped Cream: To make the whipped cream, use a stand mixer or handheld mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. On medium-high speed, whisk together 1 cup heavy cream, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, until you see fairly stiff peaks.
Pan Substitution: You can bake the cake in a 9x9-inch square pan. The baking time is roughly the same–check 2 to 3 minutes before the listed time above for doneness.
Making Miso & Butter Mixture: Some of you might wonder why I have you working the miso into the room temperature butter first before melting the ingredients in the microwave or saucepan. I found this is the best way to incorporate the miso in the butter most evenly. I tried melting the butter and miso in a saucepan, but it took a while to break down the tablespoon of miso with a whisk.
Reheating the Cake: If you refrigerated the cake, bake the cake at 350ºF (175ºC) for 8 to 10 mins. If you froze the cake, reheat at 350ºF for 12 to 14 minutes (start checking at 12 minutes). There is no need to defrost the cake first. This baking time for reheating frozen cake is based on the assumption that you cut the cake into smaller pieces before freezing. I have not tried freezing the entire cake (or large sections) and reheating them.
Why I Used Granulated & Light Brown Sugar for Glaze: The reason is purely visual. The apples on the finished cake look a lot nicer when the glaze is a lighter color. But if you want the topping to have richer flavor, feel free to use 3 tablespoons of brown sugar.

Nutrition

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