Southern Living Apple Cake

My neighbor, Claudia, brought over a few pieces of this cake several weeks ago and Jim just loved it (he loves all kinds of fruit-filled desserts). The recipe came out of the October 2010 edition of Southern Living. I had made a Red Velvet Cake last week and had tons of cream cheese frosting leftover, so I just used it on this.

The dough is relatively dry, so when I mixed in the apples and pecans I found it much easier to just use my hands instead of using a spoon. You will have about the same about of dough as you will of chopped apples.

FRESH APPLE CAKE

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (I used 2 cups)

1/2 cup botter, melted

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 lb. Granny Smith apples (about 4 large/5 medium), peeled and cut into 1/4" chunks

Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5-7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.

Stir together butter and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl until blended.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients, add to butter mixture, stirring until blended. Stir in apples and 1 cup (I used 1 1/2 cup) pecans. (Batter will be very thick, similar to a cookie dough). Spread batter into a lightly greased (I used PAM) 13x9 pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cook completely in pan on a wire rack (about 45 minutes). Spread cream cheese frosting over top, sprinkling with remaining 1/2 cup pecans.