Apple Cinnamon Swirl Cake

Here in Cambridge, the temperature’s finally dipped below freezing. Fall is nearly over. And it’s hard to believe we’ve been here nearly three months already. Luckily, apples last well into the winter, and baking with them lets me keep fall around for as long as I’d like.

I’ll be sorry when fall is gone because I like to keep telling myself I’ve still just arrived. I want Boston to keep feeling like a new city but the truth is that I’ve grown quite comfortable here. I can see myself sticking around here for a long while. People think it’s because Canada and the northern US aren’t so different but I disagree, I just feel I’ve taken a liking to New England.

And who wouldn’t? Boston and Cambridge have history that runs deep as the piles of red and yellow leaves I gleefully stomp through as I explore the city. I love that everything here is so old yet everyone talks of innovation. I love the familiar mixed in with the strange. Lots of things that are here are also at home back in Toronto, but nothing is quite the same.

What hasn’t changed is how I like to cook. I’m still making things that taste like other things I've eaten. I’m still putting tea in my desserts. And I’m still addicted to cinnamon, ever since the first time my babysitter brought me a Cinnabon as a child and continued to do so every other Saturday night for years and years until I got old enough to stay at home alone (and buy myself cinnamon buns).

If you’ve ever moved some place new and been alarmed by your ability to actually adapt and get comfortable, this recipe’s for you. It’s okay to feel at home in a new place. And it’s okay to miss home, too. Just remember to treat yourself to cinnamon and keep buying apples.

Apple Cinnamon Swirl Cake

Inspired by the Cinnabon Cake from Picky Palate

Yield: one 9x13 pan of cake

Cake batter

1 1/2 cups milk

2 bags apple cinnamon tea

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced into 1cm cubes

Cinnamon topping

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp white flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Heat milk in microwave-safe bowl in the microwave for 2-3 minutes or until steaming hot. Steep the apple cinnamon tea bags in the hot milk for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups white flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Remove the tea bags from the bowl of milk and squeeze out the milk from the tea bags back into the bowl. In a larger bowl, stir white sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla together until fluffy. While stirring, alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the mixing bowl in three batches. Start and end with the flour mixture. Stir in the diced apple until just combined. Pour the batter into a 9x13 baking dish.

In another bowl, mix the cinnamon topping ingredients together until the texture resembles a coarse meal. Sprinkle the topping over the cake batter. Use a knife to swirl the topping into the batter going up and down the length of the pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown and batter is cooked through.