Gluten-free Danish Apple and Prune Cake with a less memorable amount of butter

I have not really watched Food Network since I was a grad student, apart from a show here and there when I remembered to turn on a TV in a hotel room, which I often do not do. From what I can see, the programs on the Food Network have tilted towards competitions and explorations. In the early days, most of the shows focused on how to make things, with lots of instruction, and revealing many cooking principles. I learned tons from the daily "Cooking live" - not the recipes, but what was behind them.

The show that I remember with the biggest smile was called Two Fat Ladies. I wonder whether these days such a name would even be possible for a TV program. The hosts were indeed two ladies, and I was sure they had never seen a recipe with too much butter or too much bacon.

That show was where I first came across the Danish Apple and Prune cake. I baked one following the recipe they shared, and the amount of fat was so high that it was hard to eat. But it was memorably tasty, enough that I decided to make some adjustments, and that turned into a resounding success. The dish is still far from light, but reducing the amounts of butter and sugar, and increasing the amount of prunes, I believe led to an improvement. I also started to use millet four to make the cake gluten-free, and we find that to be an improvement as well.

Ingredients for the batter:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 oz (90g) unsalted butter at room temperature - the butter has to be soft
• 4 oz (110g) sugar
• 4 oz (110g) almond flour or ground almonds
• 3 oz millet flour (or any neutral-tasting flour including all-purpose flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 to 1 cup of milk - your call, with more milk the cake will rise more, but I kind of like it denser.
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for the topping:

• 12 or so roughly chopped prunes. Scissors make chopping prunes very easy.
• 4 oz (110g) chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1-2 TBS sugar
• 1-2 apples, cored and cliced

Ingredients for the final phase of baking:

• 1-2 TBS sugar
• ground cinnamon
• optional small cubes of unsalted butter, about 1 TBS

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Butter a 10 inch round pan. I use a 10-inch cast-iron skillet
3. Cream all ingredients for the batter. I use a whisk, a few pulses in a food processor are OK too.
4. Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread it evenly.
5. Scatter the prunes evenly across the batter.
6. Mix the sugar and the walnuts (or pecans) and spread the mixture evenly on top of the batter.
7. Arrange apple slices on top of the nut-sugar mixture.
8. Bake for 40 minutes
9. Take the cake from the oven, sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon, and if you really want to, dot with some butter.
10. Bake for additional 20 minutes, or until the skewer comes out clean.
11. Cool, slice, and eat.

A variation I want to explore

Sometimes apples sink into the batter, especially when one uses 1 cup of milk. I wonder what would happen if I used more apples and cut apples into small chunks. That still needs exploring.