Almond Apple Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and spray a 9 x 3 inch spring form pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium saucepan on medium/high heat, combine the chopped apples, honey and cinnamon to make the filling.
3. Cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Once the apples are soft, remove pan from heat and slightly mash them with a fork. You want them mostly mashed, but with some bigger chunks for texture. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger. Mix until well combined. Set aside.
6. In a medium bowl using a mixer, beat together the lightly beaten eggs, vanilla, almond milk, date sugar, stevia and honey.
7. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
8. Take the remaining ½ an apple and cut it into quarters, then cut each quarter into thin slices.
9. Lay the apple slices on their side on the bottom of the prepared pan in a spiral shape, so just the inside ends are lightly touching.
10. Pour about ½ the batter into the pan and spread carefully, making sure not to move the apple slices around too much.
11. Spoon the apple filling over top and spread evenly.
12. Carefully spoon the remaining cake batter over top of the apple mixture and spread it out evenly. This does require you to be patient and gentle to make sure you don’t end up mixing all the apple filling in with the cake dough.
13. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove pan from oven and set it on a rack.
14. Let the cake completely cool in the pan.
15. To serve, run a knife along the edge of the pan before opening the springs, to make sure your cake doesn’t rip in half!

Notes:
– I did think the cake was a little on the sweet side, but the hubs and all his coworkers loved it like this. You may want to taste the batter before adding the stevia, keeping in mind that it will get slightly less sweet when baked!
– The cake freezes beautifully!