This started off from a recipe in the King Arthur cookbook, but I don’t like cooked raisins and it collapsed at the center even though it was definitely done cooking at the edge. I did some thinking and adjusted it a bit.
Preheat oven to 325 F. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup sugar (I used about ¼ cup of brown and the rest was white)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp allspice
Combine and then add
- 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into ¼-inch dice (about 2¼ cups once chopped)
- ½ cup candied ginger, cut into raisin-size pieces or smaller (see note)
- 2 TBL soft butter
- 2 eggs
Mix until dough forms. Add
- A hand-full of pecan halves
Stir to mix in the nuts and spoon into greased cake molds. The ones I used are silicone and a little bigger than a cup-cake tins, but with straight sides. I filled them almost up to the top, pushing down with a spoon to eliminate any air pockets. I also tried a ramekin, and it worked, but the cake didn’t rise evenly because it came above the sides a bit sooner. This made 7 mini-cakes. The ones in the silicon baked about 35 minutes; the one in the ceramic ramekin was overbaked after 35 minutes. I think 30 minutes would have been right for the silicon, 25 minutes for the ramekin.
NOTE: I really prefer using the “uncrystallized ginger” from Trader Joe’s because it isn’t coated with sugar.