nic at night

I have never been super into making cakes, maybe because I don't like cakes that come from mixes and am intimidated by the idea of making cakes that don't. However, when they involve fruit, they somehow seem less like scary hard-to-make cakes and more like something else that is easy to make. Like pie except with batter instead of crust. In lieu of making sense, I give you the recipes.

Apple Cake, from Simply In Season

5 cups apples (unpeeled and chopped)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour [I didn't have any, so I just used white]
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup nuts (optional) [I didn't use nuts, as I'd forgotten to buy more after using the walnuts in the blueberry coffee cake]
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk or cream [I used rice milk]
1 tbsp flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour sugar over sliced apples, toss, and let stand. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, then mix in oil and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients [flour through nuts, if you're using them] in a third bowl. Stir flour mixture into apples alternately with egg mixture. Pour into greased 9x13" pan [it's more like 'spoon and spread,' as the batter is thick and the apples are plentiful]. Bake 50-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. While cake is baking, mix milk, brown sugar, and flour in a pot, and heat to boiling. Remove from heat, mix in powdered sugar, and drizzle mixture over hot cake [this mixture was good, but the cake was plenty sweet without it and I will probably leave the topping off in the future].


Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread, also from Simply In Season

[to make a 9x13" cake, you need to double this whole recipe]

1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp water
2 ripe pears (peeled, cored, and sliced)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour [I just used white, I really need to buy some whole wheat flour]
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp each ground nutmeg, ground allspice, salt
1/3 cup butter (softened) [I used 5 tbsp, as 1/3 cup is a pain to estimate from a stick that's 1/2 cup long and marked into eighths; I suppose if you were fanatical about accuracy, you could mush the softened butter into a measuring cup, but 5 tbsp worked out fine.]
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses or honey [I used blackstrap molasses]
1/2 cup buttermilk [I used rice milk]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter, and stir in brown sugar, sugar, and water. Pour on the bottom of baking dish, and arrange sliced pears on top of the syrup. In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients and set aside [an optional addition here is fresh grated ginger root; I used 1 cup of small pieces of candied/crystallized ginger instead]. In another bowl, mix softened butter and brown sugar until 'fluffy'; beat in egg. Add to dry ingredients alternately with molasses and milk. Pour over pears in dish, and bake for 30-35 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). Remove from oven and cool for 3 minutes, then turn over onto platter [or, in our case, a cutting board].

These cakes were both delicious, although quite rich. Especially the gingerbread, since I doubled the pears and topping for the size of the dish, but not the batter. Don't ask me why, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And, well, truthfully: I quadrupled the butter in the recipe, likely because I was more groggy than I realized that day, from fighting off a change-of-weather cold. So, it was a lot like gingerbread pudding, with the layer of pears and butter-soaked cake being half of the whole thing rather than just a topping. Really tasty gingerbread pudding, I must say. But still, not my most accurate baking effort ever. Consider it an optional variation.