Today we’ve got a good Old-Fashioned Recipe for you: Chunky Apple Cake with Butter Sauce. With tips to prevent crystallized syrup!

So yesterday the Church Ladies had a Sewing Circle, and I volunteered to make dessert. This is the time of year to pull out the good old-fashioned Apple Cake recipe, chock full of apple chunks. You cut a slice of moist awesomeness, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and top it all with a creamy butter sauce. Yum doesn’t describe it.

This recipe has been around for decades. Our Church Ladies made a cookbook in the 1970s, and this recipe is in there. So, yes, this recipe has been a fall favorite practically forever.

It’s super simple to put together, and looks like a farm-wife’s wholesome dessert, all golden and bumpy, when it comes out of the oven.

There’s just one problem.

While any amateur baker (and after 39 years of baking I haven’t passed that level, much to my chagrin) can successfully make this cake,

the butter sauce can be problematic.

Every. single. time. I make this sauce, it turns sugary. My dil’s is perfect. every. time. So unfair.

So today, along with this Old Fashioned Apple Cake Recipe, we’re going to explore the reasons butter, sugar and cream don’t always play well together.

I put out an APB (all points bulletin) to my friends, and got some pointers.

First, the recipe.

Old-Fashioned Apple Chunk Cake

Print Recipe

Old Fashioned Apple Chunk Cake with Perfect Butter Sauce

Moist, delicious fall dessert. Steaming spicy cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with smooth butter sauce equals autumn in a bowl.

Course: Dessert

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
½ cup canola oil
4 cups apples, peeled and diced
½ cup nuts, chopped

Butter Sauce

½ cup butter
½ cup cream
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Cake

Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Peel and dice apples, then add the oil and eggs. Mix well. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until incorporated. Pour into 9" x 13" pan. Top with nuts if desire.
Bake at 350° F for 35 to 40 minutes.

Butter Sauce

Mix ingredients and boil 1½ minutes. Serve over cake.

Notes

Make sure all the sugar crystals are dissolved in the cream before heating the syrup. Scrape the sides often and stir constantly while bringing to a boil. It only takes one stray sugar crystal to ruin a good thing.

How to create a Perfect Butter Sauce

Here are the tips my friends shared with me:

“I make mine in the microwave. Mix all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, and cook in half minute intervals. Stir after every half minute, and cook it just until the ingredients are melted together and smooth.”
“My girls and I don’t agree on this. They say cook it longer so it doesn’t get sugary, and I say less boiling makes a smoother sauce.” (I think I boiled mine too long.)
“Melt the ingredients together slowly to boiling, then stir for one minute.” This is on the stove.
“Do it in the microwave. Perfect every time.” (Bless your heart!)
“Make sure all the sugar is dissolved into the liquid before coming to a boil. Scrape the sides of the pan clean before bringing it to a boil. One sugar crystal falling into the syrup after it boils can make it sugary.”
“Add a little acid (lemon juice, cream of tartar or corn syrup) to the sugar -liquid mixture before boiling.”

Okay. I think I’m brave enough to try making this sauce again. Following these tips should get perfection, right?

I found a tip for “de-crystallizing” a ruined syrup, so I’m going to try it now…

“Add a tablespoon of water to the sauce and heat until all crystals are melted.”

It worked!

Now you can make

Perfect Butter Syrup Sauce!

Pin it for later if you can’t make it today!