Sunday, April 01, 2012

A is for Apple Cake

Eating: A few weeks ago a friend mentioned that her son said he wanted an apple cake for his 5th birthday.  His logic was that he likes carrot cakes, but he likes apples even more than carrots, so apple cake must be even better than carrot cake.  I love 5-year-old logic.  So I offered my favorite apple cake recipe (which is also one of my favorite dessert recipes, period) as well as E's Grandma Nellie's apple cake recipe. And now I offer them both to you.  My apple cake is less cake like.  It gets a nice and slightly crispy on top.  I serve it with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream, or with freshly whipped cream.  I have not yet made Grandma Nellie's recipe (because I like my own so much, I guess) but my friend did and it was a hit.  She made a cream cheese frosting for it and said it turned out a lot like a carrot cake. Nellie's frosting sounds more like a caramel frosting to me, and therefore, sounds scrumptious.  A couple of tips: I think you could probably substitute apple sauce for some of the oil in either recipe to cut out some of the fat and Nellie's recipe says "do not sift" the flour - I never sift the flour (maybe because I am lazy?  I don't know.  I just have never in my life sifted flour.)

Fresh Apple Cake (my recipe, formerly the recipe of the woman I nannied for almost 20 years ago)
Add together: 2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 C oil
1 t vanilla
3 C sliced apples (peeled and cored, of course)
Fold in: 3 C flour
2 C sugar
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
Bake 1 hour at 300 in a 13x9 pan.  Serve warm or cooled, with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream, or freshly whipped cream.

Fresh Apple Cake (Grandma Nellie's recipe - given to me by my mother-in-law)
Mix together: 4 C apples, chopped fine
2 eggs
2 C white sugar
1/2 C oil
Add: 2 C flour (do not sift)
1 t cinnamon
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 C chopped nuts
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. 
Frosting: Melt 1/2 C shortening and 1 C brown sugar over low heat.  Add 1/4 C milk.  Boil 2-3 minutes.  Stir constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add 2-2 1/2 C powdered sugar.  Beat.  Add 1 t vanilla.

Nellie, I challenge you to a bake-off!
Try one recipe, try them both.  Either way, let me know what you think. 

Until we eat again,
Hallie

3 comments:

Kern Windwraith said...

Oh, yum! Not just one apple cake recipe--two of them! I'll definitely be back to check out more recipes, as well as your book and gardening posts.

Kern (#876)

Ladydragonfly1958 said...

Hi! I found you through AtoZ Challenge. Love your blog! The apple cake recipe's look fantastic and make my mouth water. Can't wait to see what you have for the rest of the challenge. Julie http://theworldofjulieb.blogspot.com/

Hallie said...

Kern and Julie - Thanks for visiting!

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