Dessert: Spiced Apple Coffee Cake

Recipe by mavijac This dense, spiced bread with an apple-streusel topping can be made in a loaf pan, muffin tins, or springform pan. Yum!

This recipe includes superfoods such as:

Cinnamon, Apples

Health benefits of Spiced Apple Coffee Cake

Cinnamon is one of the best ingredients that someone with insulin sensitivity can eat. Half a teaspoon of cinnamon per day has been shown to be very effective at normalizing blood sugar levels. Cinnamon contains hydroxychalcone, which is thought to enhance the effects of insulin. It has also been suggested that Cinnamon prevents post-meal blood sugar spikes by slowing the gastric emptying rate - meaning that food digests slowly. (Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11506060). Apples will improve your body's sensitivity to insulin (Reference: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/1/281.full)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold butter

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9 inch springform pan. Sprinkle sugar in the pan to coat. Whisk together 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a bowl.
Beat 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup white sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla with the last egg. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Spread into prepared pan.
Top the cake with the sliced apples, arranged in an overlapping spiral pattern. In a small bowl, blend 2 tablespoons flour, brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and butter with fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over the apples.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.