Okay, this cake is amazing. We have made 2 apple cakes in the last few weeks and this won the vote as best. Both were rated really high -- one on Allrecipes.com and this one from Cooking Light. If you are not already familiar with Cooking Light, 170 is A LOT of reviews for them. And they are all 5 stars!

A lot of reviewers say they use this cake for Thanksgiving and it is definitely worthy of an autumn holiday meal. It is often used for brunch as well. The presentation is as beautiful as the picture indicates if you use a spring-form pan. So easy too!

I need more recipes like this one.

Here is the link to the original recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000222502

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Outstanding

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This 5-star cinnamon apple cake is one of our best-ever recipes and can be served as dessert or a breakfast coffee cake. The cream cheese in the batter gives the cake lots of moisture.

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup stick margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened (about 3/4 cup)
• 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 Rome apple (about 2 large) Note: I used 3 Granny Smith apples!
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, margarine, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition (I beat for 1 minute after each egg). Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture. I only had a 10-inch springform pan but it still turned out beautiful!

Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife. WARNING: A lot of the reviews said it only took about 1 hour to cook. I set my timer for 55 minutes and it was done (note my different size pan though). Start checking the cake early.

Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

281 (28% from fat)

Fat:

8.7g (sat 1.8g,mono 3.7g,poly 2.6g)

Protein:

4.8g

Carbohydrate:

46.3g

Fiber:

1.2g

Cholesterol:

39mg

Iron:

1.1mg

Sodium:

234mg

Calcium:

89mg

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 1997