Apple Cake

A very long time ago, in the last century, (I love saying that) I worked at the local branch of a national bank. It's international now, may have been then, but that is not here nor there.  Once a month with our paychecks there was an employee newsletter stapled to our checks.  One particular month, an employee from Hilton submitted her families apple cake recipe.  I kept that newsletter planning to make the cake.

Many years went by, and I switched careers to LPN.  One afternoon I was sorting through some boxes and ran across the newsletter.  It was a quiet fall afternoon and I thought making cake sounded like just the thing to do. So I drove up the road to the farmer's market, (it's also the best place for sweet corn) since I knew the twenty ounce apples would be just coming in.  So, I grabbed a couple bushels or more. What? Oh when these apples come in, they sell out pretty quick, you need to get as many as you can keep in cold storage that is if you like to bake with apples.

From Knitting Kitties

My daughter and I cut and peeled too many apples, so I made a second cake to take to work.  My kids ate up the first cake so fast there almost wasn't a second cake to take to work the next morning. Word spread pretty quick around the nursing home, as it always does when there is really good free food, or really juicy gossip, and very soon people from other floors and departments were snooping in our kitchen for the cake.  Out of two 13 x 9 pans, I had one small piece.  One CNA offered to make me a pan of collard greens (which I loved but couldn't figure out how to make) for a cake for her family dinner.  Later another CNA showed me her secret to making the best collard greens for the recipe to the cake.

In a disastrous accident, I lost the newsletter.  I was no longer working at that facility and didn't have contact with that aid. A few years later when I bought a  computer and plugged into the internet, I searched and searched, for ten years I searched.  I was beginning to think that maybe that was a secret family recipe to that lady in Hilton.  Then last year I finally found this recipe, so very close to the original.  I made her recipe, except I used Granny Smith apples, a baking apple.  It really wasn't as good as the cake I remembered.  This year, I played around with it and came up with one that tastes exactly like the original.

13 x 9 cake pan greased and floured

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into bite size chunks
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)

topping:

1 cup walnuts or pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

glaze

1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
just enough milk to make it a glaze that you can drizzle over the cake, (I use half and half creamer)

In a very large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix together.  Mix in sour cream.  Fold in the chopped apples.  (I usually wait to this point to peel and cut the apples that way they don't turn brown) Sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Mix in with the wet ingredients. Add the (optional) cup of nuts if wanted in the cake batter as well.  Pour into a 13 x 9 inch pan.

Mix together the topping ingredients, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon in a small  bowl and sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  (Gas mark 4 for UK)

Let cake cool. Place on foil lined cookie sheet or where ever you usually place your cooled cake.  (Me, I usually just leave it in the pan, it's not hanging around for very long)  Mix together the glaze ingredients then drizzle over top of the cake.

From Knitting Kitties

(The photo is a piece without the glaze as we were out of creamer and milk)

I know I promised to post this on Saturday, however I woke up to a very sick little bunny Saturday morning. I was busy nursing her all day.  She's back to her normal spunky self today.  Took her little paw and punched me right in the nose when I picked her up.