How Grammie Got Her Groove Back
We officially have one more family member in the house. Our daughter had her beautiful baby girl on October 28th. Needless to say, we have been in a time loop ever since. We are all extremely sleep deprived, but madly in love with sweet little Penelope.
Spending time in the kitchen has definitely taken a back seat to helping with the baby. Thankfully, we have been blessed with meal deliveries from church friends and family. That has been amazing.
As we have been slowly starting to get a routine, I have been trying to squeeze in some of our holiday favorites. I made some Slow Cooker Applesauce, and a batch of seasonal Chex Mix. But I had a bunch of apples left over, and I was dying to try an Apple Cake I had seen from SmittenKitchen.com.
This cake is best baked in a tube pan. I have a Bundt pan, but gave away my tube pan back when baking something like an angel food cake was way out of my wheelhouse. The advantage of a tube over a bundt pan is that all those yummy apple bits stay on top, rather than ending up at the bottom of the cake, as they would when you flip the bundt pan. I thought about it for awhile, and decided to reinvest in a one-piece tube pan just for this recipe, knowing I will in fact use it for more than one recipe eventually.
I got myself all set up to try the recipe. Penelope was having an afternoon nap and the rest of the family was going to run a couple of errands. The recipe is very simple, and should not take as long as it did for me, but that’s how life rolls with a baby in the house.
I had mixed my dry ingredients and then mixed my wet ingredients in another bowl. I had just begun to peel, core and dice my apples when Penny got fussy in the other room. After a double diaper change, which required a change of clothes as well, I decided to try out the baby carrier to see if I could finish the cake before Christmas rolled around.
Technically, Penelope is still too small for the carrier, and refuses to keep her legs inside the legs of her outfits, but I placed her in the carrier, all curled up with her pacifier and we finished the cake together. I peeled the apples very slowly and cut ever so carefully. Then I mixed the apple cubes with cinnamon and sugar and set them aside for a bit.
Once I had combined the wet ingredients with the dried, I poured half the batter into the greased tube pan. This is tricky with a baby on board. Next, I poured half of the apples on top of the batter in the pan. I covered those apples with the rest of the batter, admittedly dribbling all over, including some on the baby carrier. Don’t worry, I did not drop any on Penny. Finally, I arranged the rest of the apples on top of the batter.
The cake bakes at 350ºF for 1 1/2 hours. My cake browned nice and slowly, but if you find yours browning too quickly, cover the pan with some aluminum foil for a while, removing for the last few minutes of baking.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes, then slide a plastic knife around the edge of the cake and place on a platter.
The cake is delicious and wonderfully moist the first day, but as SmittenKitchen testifies, it gets better the next day, as the apples make the cake more custard like as it sits. I can also attest to the fact that this cake makes excellent breakfast.
If you find yourself with some apples that need to be used up, try this cake soon. Find the full recipe here.
I will definitely be making it again, though I don’t know when. I also hope to be baking some of our favorite Christmas goodies soon, but Penelope is a bit distracting. And I’m really ok with that.
