It's been a while and nice to be back writing about our love of cooking. As much as Jeff and I have been cooking up a storm, I have not been good about posting our recipes. It makes me sad when I think about all the great recipes I could have been sharing, especially the fresh vegetable recipes that we made with goodies from our garden. Now that the garden is done for the season, I feel like I have time to breathe and get back into telling our story.
We did quite a bit of canning this summer and I promise to backtrack through some of the recipes, especially the Red, Yellow and Green Tomato Salsas. I would have considered Jeff the canning expert but with everything we (and sometimes I) canned this summer, I officially took over as the "Canning Queen". Five different types of pickles, pickled beets, pickled jalapeños, tomato sauce, tomato salsa, pickled tomatoes, strawberry jam and the list goes on.
Moving into fall, we normally head to Carlson Orchards to spend the afternoon walking the orchard and picking a variety of apples. This year we were lazy, we opted for The Big Apple, which is local to us. When I mean lazy, we didn't pick any apples, just went in and bought 4 varieties of apples. I do know this, next year I want to pick apples. It was the first time in 10+ years that we hadn't and it's not something I want to put aside. I enjoy the apples as much as the experience.
The apples we got were delicious and within 3 weeks I have made honey applesauce, apple conserve, the Disappearing Apple Crisp, carrot cake jam and this delicious apple cake. When I was looking for a new apple dessert, I wanted something that wasn't too sweet and could be used as a snack or breakfast treat verses a dessert. I know this is a dessert but my idea of dessert for this cake would have been a cinnamon crumble topping...much more sugar.
The ingredients are fairly straight forward and I had this cake put together in less than 30 minutes. The best part was I got to use this amazing cake pan. I'm not sure how old it is, but it is very special. My sister-in-law, Laura, gave it to me after her mom, Joan, passed away suddenly. Joan had always spent the holidays with us and loved to cook. She would bring us cookbooks as well as treats from her kitchen when she arrived. I'm so glad I have some of her bakeware because it reminds me of her as well as her love of baking. I think she would have enjoyed the apple cake.
The apple cake cooked up beautifully and once it cooled slightly, I had to have a taste. The cake was moist and the warm apples melted in my mouth. It had a nutty taste and it was the perfect sweetness. I love these types of cakes with a cup of coffee or tea at 3 PM in the afternoon; a "pick me up" snack. Jeff likes to have a sweet at night around 8 PM. "This is exactly what I was looking for... little bit of fruit, a few nuts and not a lot of sugar."
Now that we have a simple dessert for apples, I want to find a pumpkin snack cake for all the pumpkin I have and will be cooking over the next few weeks. If you have any suggestions, send them my way. I love highlighting family favorite recipes.
Enjoy!
Easy Apple Cake Recipe
Adapted from Food Mayhem
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
3 cups of apples - peeled, cored and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup of dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 or 12 inch cake tube pan.
- Mix a small bowl, mix dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set Aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together for 1-2 minutes until the mixture begins to lighten.
- Slowly drizzle oil into the sugar and eggs and whisk continually until blended. The mixture will be slightly thickened and light yellow.
- With a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients and mix until blended.
- Add chopped apples, dried cranberries and pecans.
- The mixture will be thick.
- Place in tube pan and bake on center rack for 45-50 minutes. Remove from oven when cake is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool on baking rack in pan.
- Enjoy warm or cold.
Serves 8-10 people.
