Apple Cake

The past week has been a very eventful and exciting one.  A week ago today, we headed to the hospital to welcome this little guy into the world.  Despite his surprise arrival eight days early, we could not be happier that he is finally here.

Since the arrival of Carson, I haven’t been doing much cooking or baking.  Carson was born on Sunday and Ben’s parents and my mom made it to Amarillo in time to be some of the first to meet him.  My parents have been here since then and my mom has been making breakfast, lunch and dinner for us as well as cleaning up and doing laundry for me.  I don’t know how we’re going to survive once they leave this afternoon!  Thankfully Ben’s parents and Aunt Claire will be here on Tuesday, so we won’t be on our own for long.

Last night Patti brought over a pork roast, rolls and gravy; my mom made mashed potatoes and a salad; and my mom and I made this apple cake.  It was a simple dessert and I’m planning to make it again for Thanksgiving.  The ingredient list is short, and there are no special skills required to make this cake…which is more tart- or pie-like, really.  I found the recipe here on A Whisk and a Spoon.

We ate the cake with a scoop of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream.  It was the perfect combination.

Apple Cake

Courtesy of A Whisk and a Spoon

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped and reserved
  • 1 1/4 pounds (3 to 4 small to medium) Granny Smith apples
  • 1/2 cup AP flour, plus mor for dusting the pan
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line the base of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment, then smear with thick layer of butter. Dust with flour; turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour.  Melt butter in small saucepan (you can take it a step further and lightly brown it, if you like). Set aside.
  2. Beat together eggs and half the sugar in a bowl (it’s not hard to do by hand). Continue to beat while slowly adding remaining sugar until thick; it should form a ribbon when dropped from a spoon.  Add the vanilla seeds to the batter and add the pod to the melted butter.
  3. Peel, quarter and core apples, then trim ends and slice thinly.
  4. Remove vanilla pod from butter and stir butter into egg-sugar batter. Combine the flour and baking powder, then stir it into batter alternately with milk. Stir in apples, coating every piece with batter. Pour batter into pan, using fingers to pat top evenly.
  5. Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate pan; bake for about 25 minutes more, until cake pulls away from pan and is brown on top; a thin-bladed knife inserted into center will come out clean when it is done. Cool 30 minutes on a rack.
  6. Remove the sides of the springform, cut the cake into wedges and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.