Almond Apple Cake

This lovely recipe is adapted from the Hazelnut Plum Cake on epicurious.com, but you have to have quality plums for the Hazelnut Plum Cake to work out and in Wisconsin in mid-winter, quality apples are much easier to come by. I tried the following version for New Year's Eve dinner (following up homemade pizzas -- which were okay despite too-doughy crusts), served with maple whipped cream. Unfortunately, my digital camera isn't working, so I can't photograph the nice results :( Anyway, here are the details...

Ingredients
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/2 c. almond meal (Bob's Red Mill sells this; otherwise, get 1/2 c. or so of raw almonds and process in a food processor)
1/3 c. oat flour -- This was a new component, as the recipe calls for all-purpose flour, but I thought the oat flour would give a nice flavor and moistness to the cake. It does, but if you don't have oat flour (Arrowhead Mills makes some), you can use regular flour with no problem.
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 apple, thinly sliced -- you can peel or leave the skin on, either way works
1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, in whatever proportions you like.

First, preheat oven to 425 F and butter and flour 8-in. round cake pan. You can also line the cake pan in parchment paper, if you'd rather.

Blend together almond meal, flour, and brown sugar. If you're using whole almonds, blend in food processor until well mixed. Melt butter and add vanilla when cool ... Set aside.

Combine egg whites and salt, and beat at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in almond-flour-sugar mixture, then add melted butter/vanilla mix (batter will deflate). Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Top batter with apple slices, then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture over the top. I do find that the center takes a little too long to finish cooking if you layer too many apples in the center (as usually happens when trying to make pretty concentric circles), so be careful not to cover the center completely with apple slices.

Place in center rack in oven and bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. As I mentioned, I used whipped cream sweetened with maple syrup and vanilla, for which the recipe is quite simple: 1 c. chilled whipping cream, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, and 1-3 Tbs. maple syrup (go on the light side if you don't like things too sweet--the only disadvantage is that you then can't really taste the maple flavor). Mixed in a chilled non-reactive metal or glass bowl and beat on high until desired consistency. Be careful not to beat too long, or you'll have very sweet butter :)