Extremely Moist Jewish Apple Cake

MM has been pitching the idea for an extremely moist apple cake for some time now, and his wish finally came to fruition (get it? Anyone? Bueller?) when we inherited a boatload of freshly picked Stayman-Winesap apples from my parents after their recent apple-picking adventure. Aren't they pretty?

It was the perfect complement to our ultra-fall day, complete with football, chili, and pumpkin beer. The cake is dense, slightly spiced, and delightfully true to the taste of the apples. Adding a glaze over top was a last-minute addition per MM’s expert recommendation (I dragged my feet, but let’s be honest, when does a glaze make something worse?).

Needless to say, the leftovers didn’t stick around long.

I replaced half of the oil from the original recipe with apple sauce – it’s a low-fat, healthy substitute, and it only enhances the cake’s apple flavors. However, I’ve used applesauce in plenty of baking projects that don’t involve apples, and you can’t detect the taste at all. Next time I make this cake, I may swap out even more of the oil for apple sauce, as well as adding just a sprinkle of cinnamon to the batter. 

My other note to the wise - this recipe originally calls for a tube pan or a bundt pan, of which I have neither. I opted to use a springform pan and a loaf pan. Splitting the recipe between the two pans worked out well in terms of baking the cake. However, as you can see, flipping the cake out of the loaf pan presented some, ahem, challenges:

We are off to Detroit tomorrow for the Detroit Free Press Half-Marathon – updates to come! 

Extremely Moist Jewish Apple Cake
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

6 apples (I prefer to use tart apples for this)
1-2 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 ¾ cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup no-sugar added applesauce
2 cups sugar
¼ cup orange juice
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) 

Glaze (optional)

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan (or two loaf pans...or any two combinations of pans that you have). 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, apple juice, 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. If you are spreading this between two pans, start checking the cakes after about one hour.

If you opt to include the glaze, melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk in the remaining ingredients and pour over the top of the cake. Allow to cool before serving.

Guida’s Famous Pumpkin Roll

Have you ever had this feeling in the kitchen?

“I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m a great baker.”

“Sure, I can make that - no problem!”

This line of thinking is dangerous, my friends!

I started with the perfect set-up: a birthday-celebrating mother who loves pumpkin, a cream cheese loving father who was in charge of picking dessert, and a high-fiving fiancé who swears up, down, left, and right that his sister-in-law’s pumpkin roll recipe is the world’s greatest.

Not batting an eyelash, I quickly signed up for the task, completely ignoring my never-done-a-roll baking history in favor of a how-hard-can-it-be attitude.

Um. Turns out, it can be hard! Not only did Guida walk me through the recipe, she also walked me through the rolling steps. I took notes, I pictured it in my head, and I was ready to go. Per her suggestion (which I thought was totally unnecessary at the time), I opted to make a practice roll early in the birthday week.

I was sure that Guida’s suggestion of using a cookie pan would spread my batter too thin, so I opted to drop my batter into a 9x13 pan (mistake #1). While that was baking, I dutifully sprinkled powdered sugar onto a dishtowel to prevent the cake from sticking later on and awaited the ding of the timer.

A little too thick, eh?

I gave the cake a few minutes to cool, and then flipped it onto the dishtowel for its initial roll (mistake #2). Laws of physics came in, and the major gust of wind I produced with my flip sent powdered sugar flying all over my countertops. Not only did my counters then see the best scrub they’ve seen since we moved in (silver lining?), my dishtowel had the chance to become deeply attached to its new cake friend - so attached that half the cake stuck to the towel when I tried to unroll.

Lessons learned for next time:
-When someone tells you that a big pan is OK, trust their experience over your “ideas”.
-Powdered sugar stuck in a coffee maker is not the worst thing that can ever happen.
-Even if it’s ugly as sin, pumpkin roll is one of the tastiest desserts ever created.

Round two went more smoothly, and Mother Lisa’s birthday went off without a hitch. As far as fiancé and I, one week and two pumpkin rolls later, we’re going to start focusing the household baking on any non-pumpkin options!

Guida’s Famous Pumpkin Roll 
Ingredients:

Cake

3 eggs

1 cup of sugar

2/3 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup flour

1tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

4 tsp butter, room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375F. Mix all batter ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Spray a full-size cookie sheet well, and pour the pumpkin batter onto the sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, lay a dishtowel flat on a counter and sprinkle it with powdered sugar. Once the cake is out of the oven, geeennnnnnntly, flip the cake onto the dishtowel (beware of flying sugar). Slowly roll the cake in the dishtowel until you have formed a towel-cake log. Set it aside to cool.

Beat all of the icing ingredients together in a stand mixer. Once the cake has cooled, unroll it and spread the frosting across the cake surface. Carefully begin rolling the iced cake back up, taking care to avoid crack in the cake. You may want a second pair of hands to help you with this.

Refrigerate the cake, and once cool, cut off the excess cake on the ends to reveal your beautiful spiral. Serve with a dark cup of coffee, and enjoy!