Apple Walnut Cake -- The Caramel Apple Spirit, Baked Into Something You Can Sit Down With

Halloween in Savannah. The city does Halloween the way it does everything — with Spanish moss and ghost stories and a kind of spooky elegance that tourists eat up and locals roll their eyes at. The squares fill with haunted tours. The restaurants put skulls in the windows. The oak trees, which are already dramatic enough without help, become the backdrop for every "most haunted city" photo on the internet.

I don't do Halloween. Never have. Baptist upbringing, Hattie Pearl's rules: "We don't celebrate the devil's holiday, Dorothy Mae. We celebrate the Lord's." But I do make caramel apples for the neighborhood children because caramel apples are not satanic, they are delicious, and any child who rings my doorbell deserves something that was made by a human hand, not a factory. I made forty caramel apples this afternoon. Granny Smiths from the grocery store, dipped in caramel I made on the stove (brown sugar, butter, cream, vanilla, a pinch of salt), set on wax paper to cool. Some of them I rolled in chopped pecans. Some I drizzled with chocolate. All of them were made with love, which is the only ingredient that matters and the only one you can't buy at Kroger.

Seventeen children came to the door. Seventeen pirates and princesses and one very small child dressed as a shrimp, which made me laugh so hard I had to hold the doorframe. A shrimp. Someone's mother put her child in a shrimp costume. I gave that child two caramel apples and the mother's phone number, because any woman who puts her toddler in a shrimp costume on Halloween is my kind of woman and I intend to know her.

Devon and Kayla came by after the trick-or-treating wound down. Devon was wearing a fireman costume, which Kayla pointed out is just his work uniform, and Kayla was dressed as a nurse, which Devon pointed out is just HER work uniform. They sat on the porch eating caramel apples and laughing at each other, and I watched them from the doorway and I thought: this is what young marriage looks like. This is the easy part. The silly part. The part where you dress up as yourselves and think it's funny. The hard parts come later, and they will come, because hard parts always do. But the silly part — the caramel apple part — is the part that gives you the strength for the hard parts.

Now go on and feed somebody.

Forty caramel apples is a lot of apples, and I always buy a few extra Granny Smiths because I know myself — I know I’ll want to do something with the ones that are left once the trick-or-treaters have gone home and Devon and Kayla have walked back down the block, still laughing. This Apple Walnut Cake is what happens to those extra apples. Same spirit as the caramel apple — fresh fruit, a little sweetness, something made by a human hand with intention — just in a form you can sit down with, pour coffee beside, and eat slowly while the Spanish moss sways and the night goes quiet.

Apple Walnut Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups peeled, cored, and diced Granny Smith apples (about 3 medium apples)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
• 1 cup raisins (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or Bundt pan thoroughly, making sure to coat all the crevices.
2. Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
3. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.
4. Bring it together. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring just until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix — the batter will be thick.
5. Fold in the fruit and nuts. Gently fold in the diced apples, chopped walnuts, and raisins if using. The apples will release moisture as they bake, keeping the cake tender throughout.
6. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
7. Cool. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then carefully turn out onto the rack to cool completely before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 520 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 28g | Carbs: 64g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 190mg