When I was a little girl and we would go visit my grandmother, there would always be something cooking when we arrived. One of her recipes that was passed down to my mother and then to me was this super dense and hearty apple cake. It will always be one of my favorites, not only for its taste, but for the memories I have of eating the sugared apples before the cake was even made.
Ingredients:
1 cup of vegetable oil
1/3 cup of orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
4 eggs, unbeaten
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
cinnamon to taste
2 cups of sugar
3 cups of flour
4-6 apples peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sugar and a splash of cinnamon (reserved)
Begin by heating the oven to 350 and spraying and flouring a bundt pan. This cake will eventually cook for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes depending on your oven.
Peel, core and slice about 4 to 6 apples. The fewer apples you use the denser the cake. This time I used 6 and the cake was much more moist than usual, but had difficulty holding its shape.
Pour about 1/2 cup of sugar and a splash of cinnamon into a bowl.
Toss in the sliced apples and set aside.
In a mixing bowl place all of the dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Add in the orange juice, oil and eggs and then pour in the vanilla.
The ingredients should be mixed until combined and will seem quite thick.
When the batter holds its shape it is ready.
Your bundt pan should be sprayed and then floured.
Place a small layer of batter and then apples into the pan.
Repeat until you are out of both. Cook the cake at 350 for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. When it is removed from the oven it should sit for about ten to fifteen minutes and then be turned out of its pan and left to cool for an hour or so.
As I said earlier, this time I used a lot of apples and the cake was moist and a bit crumbly. It is lovely as a dessert or a breakfast and is perfect for a New England fall day like we are having today.
