I wanted to make an apple cake that was a bit fancier than my usual go-to cake which is a basic tea cake that I serve either with a light glaze or just dusted with a little confectioners’ sugar. This time, though, I wanted to dress it up with frosting. Along the way, whether by necessity or inspiration, I made some tweaks to the recipe and I really like the way it turned out.

I began with the basic recipe for Apple Lover’s Cake in 1000 Vegan Recipes. When I’ve made this cake before, I noticed that if I use a small apple, I need to add a little extra liquid to make up the volume of moist ingredients. This time I decided to shred the apple in the food processor to catch every drop of juice. Since I was already using the food processor to shred the apple, I decided to mix the cake batter in the food processor as well. I didn’t have any dried apple in the house (an ingredient in the original recipe), so I added extra applesauce and a bit of apple juice instead. I used light brown sugar because that’s what I had in the house and included some cinnamon for extra flavor.

For a frosting, I combined tofu cream cheese, melted vegan butterscotch chips, and some confectioners’ sugar. After frosting the cake, I decorated the sides with some toasted sliced almonds. The recipe is below. I think this cake would also be good with a peanut butter frosting or a plain vegan cream cheese frosting.