Deb’s Mom’s Apple Cake

Have you been over to Smitten Kitchen? It’s a seriously drool-inducing food blog that I love. She makes the most amazing things and has some great photographs. And, what makes her even more perfectly hate-inducing is that she has the worlds smallest kitchen. Man, I feel like I have nothing to complain about after seeing her tiny tiny kitchen.

Hopefully I didn’t lose all of you to browse Deb’s blog for hours on end… Back to what I was talking about: Deb’s mom’s Apple Cake. I saw this and knew instantly that it would be a perfect fall cake. And then I found the perfect opportunity to make it. Our cooking club chose cinnamon as the theme this month. I came up with a list of about 8 recipes I wanted to try that highlight cinnamon and then I let Hubby chose which one I should make. He didn’t even have to think about it once he saw this cake.

I wish they had invented a way to share smells through a computer. Maybe some day. All I can tell you is that this cake smells amazing while it’s baking. I ended up baking the cake for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I had a hard time telling when it was done. I stuck a knife in it and there was still some gooeyness but I didn’t want to overbake the cake…

(Deb’s) Mom’s Apple Cake – from Smitten Kitchen
Printable Recipe
6 apples, Mom uses McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and chopped – I used 3 McIntosh and 3 Golden Delicious
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) – I omitted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

By the way, I don’t think a tester would ever come clean from this cake. Do you see that gooey goodness on the top there. That’s half baked dough and it’s amazing. Seriously, the best part of this cake. I checked my cake at an hour, then every 10 minutes. It baked for 1 hour, 20 minutes and it was a little over done on the bottom. I think next time I’ll do it for an hour and ten minutes. I’ll also make three layers of batter and apples. And don’t you worry, I’ll definitely be making this again soon!