Old Fashioned Apple Cake

This is what I believe is an old traditional recipe, I adapted it from a blog post here.

Old Fashioned Apple Cake with my Cinnamon Sauce

I dropped some of the oil and used applesauce, I also topped it with my own cinnamon sauce creation, SCRUMPTIOUS!

Still warm from the oven, I couldn't resist cutting it!

You don’t need any glaze really but you can make up a simple confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla glaze if you want.

Is that piece for me? I don't mind if I do!

It makes a nice big cake and is SUPER easy to make! A good one for beginner bakers.

A warm slice cut...filled with moist apples.

Old-Fashioned Apple Cake

3 apples peeled and chopped (2 ½ c or more, use tart apples)
2 1/2 cup sself rising flour (or plain flour plus 4 tsp of baking powder and 1 tsp salt)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ c oil (original recipe called for 1 c oil, I cut it and added the applesauce)
½ c applesauce
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

I’ll add pictures here along with the directions:

Simple Ingredients

Gather your ingredients together; this cake is made with just a few.

1. Peel and chop about 3 apples, 1 1/2 c or more, using tart apples. Set aside. Grease and flour your pan now too so it’s ready.

2. Mix s.r. flour, sugar, cinnamon in a bowl with a whisk. Add nuts and or raisins now if using.

3. Measure oil into large glass measuring cup then add spoonfuls of applesauce to make the level rise to 1 c. Now add two eggs and carefully mix eggs in well. (Saves getting more cups dirty!) Add to dry ingredients and mix.

Oil and applesauce in measuring glass.

4. Add apples and finish mixing by hand; it’s a thick, heavy batter.

The Apple Cake batter is thick and heavy.

5. Spoon into well greased and floured bundt or angel food pan. I used an antique pan called “Re-Kul Pan O Cake”, I LOVE that, Pan O Cake! haha…More about that later.

My "Re-Kul Pan O Cake" pan.

6. Bake at 350 F 45 min – 1 hour. It comes out with a nice sort of crust on top, I think because of the sugar in it.

Apple cake finished!

Let cool 10 minutes in pan then remove to rack to cool by turning upside down. Or after removing, put on plate and drizzle with glaze made from confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla. Original recipe said to put it on cooled cake, but I liked putting it on warm, made it all melty.

Here it is unmolded and warm.

My Notes:

• The original recipe called for 1 c oil, I cut it to 1/2 c and added 1/2 applesauce; it was great.
• Try cutting the sugar back too if you like, I’ll try it next time and let you know how it goes.
• Raisins are really nice in this!
• Make sure ingredients are at room temperature, it helps.
• I bet this would be really good baked in loaf pans too because the top came out with a lovely sort of crispiness.
• I also baked this as a half recipe in a 9×9″ pan, plenty for one or two!
• Gosh don’t you just love an easy recipe that comes out so great?!

So you’re wondering about that pan? Well I bought mine at a thrift store, must be ages ago, and never used it. When I was cleaning out my lower cupboards I pulled it out and thought it was interesting with the writing engraved on the sides. I guess a baker named Jackson M. Luker in Urbana, Illinois, was in competition with another bakery across the street. They started selling angel food cakes cheaper, this made him so mad he left ALL his cakes to sit and spoil. When they sat in the pan so long he thought they were ruined but actually, because of being made with egg whites they formed a sort of hard crust and it kept them quite fresh inside. He had the brilliant idea to offer them this way in the pan and was able to ship them all over the USA. You send the pan back in for a refill cheaper! You could buy one for $2.50 then the refill was $1.25.

Read the article here to learn more about this inventive baker: http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/1940s/1947/08/foodflashes . I saw a pan like mine for sale on EBay for $69!! No Way! Then I saw one on a site called “Proxibid” and it sold for $1, so hey, maybe you can find one?

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Spiced Fruit Scones

Cranberry Spice Scones hot from the oven!

This is a great simple scone recipe that I got from the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland website; I guess it was so popular in their cafe that people asked for the recipe.

A plateful of hot scones waiting for butter

I don’t know, to me they look like just a basic recipe but they are very good!

Golden brown on top

You can make them with dried cranberries as I did, or use the ‘usual’ raisins which would be just as nice!

I can't wait to tuck into these, the tea is ready!

A very easy recipe to make, I added the measurements in parenthesis to make it easier for those who like to use ounces.

225g self raising flour (8 oz)
55g butter, softened (2 oz)
25g caster sugar (1 oz or 1 ½ T)
125g sultanas, raisins or dried cranberries (scant 1 c)
1 teaspoon mixed spice (this is what made them different, I guess you could use cinnamon but mixed spice was marvelous!)
150ml milk (5 oz or between 2/3 – ¾ c)
pinch of salt

Preparation method
1.    Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2.    Mix together the flour, mixed spice, salt and rub in the butter.
3.    Stir in the sugar & sultanas or dried cranberries and then the milk to get a soft dough.
4.    Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. (** see notes below) Pat out to a round 2cm thick.  Use a cutter to stamp out shapes and place on a baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
5.    Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. (or just do like me, put a tiny bit of milk in a cup and just use your fingers to pat the milk on the tops, it’s so easy and quick.) Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden.
6.    Cool on a wire rack

** If your dough seems too wet and sticky, just sprinkle a liberal amount of flour on the counter, dust the dough in the bowl with flour and gather it into a ball lightly. Put on the counter and with floured hands pat it out a bit.

** Knead it by folding it over and patting it out and repeat a few times. Don’t let it stick to the counter, just lift it up and flour the counter more. It should only take you a couple minutes to do this, make them often and you’ll get to be a real expert!

** DO NOT TWIST your cutter when you cut them out, just push straight down. If you have a good cutter it should be sharp and solid, I can tell the difference now that I have a ‘proper’ one!

** oh yes another tip, scones like to be near their neighbor while baking, put them about 1″ apart on the greased sheet.

** I also think these would be marvelous with dried Apricots!  Next time…

Ready and waiting for butter!

They’re great served warm with soft butter, honey or jam and clotted cream if you’ve got it!

Scone Base Pizza

Scone Base Pizza

Hot out of the oven

I learned this easy recipe from a friend I made in Northumberland England. She’s in her 80’s and a superb baker, known throughout the area as such, and I love talking to her about baking. Well this recipe she gave me because my boyfriend had it at her house once and always talked about it. I’m glad she shared it with me as it’s fast and easy to make, and you can change it to suit your family. A simple easy dinner. Perfect for two!

Scone Base Pizza (dough)

1 1/3 c (6 oz.) Self Raising Flour
3 Tablespoons (1 1/2 oz) Cold Butter
pinch of salt
enough milk to make dough, about 5 Tablespoons or so.

measuring the flour

1. Measure flour into a medium bowl and sprinkle the pinch of salt over it. Always spoon your flour into measuring cups to keep it light and airy, level it off carefully so as not to pack it down.

2. Cut 3 T of butter off a stick (or measure it out if you don’t have sticks) and with a sharp knife, cut into bits into the flour.

Using the pastry blender

3. Use a pastry blender to mix the butter into small crumbs, you can further incorporate it into the flour using your finger tips and ‘pinching’ it in as shown below. You can also just use your fingers instead of the pastry blender at all. This is great exercise for your fingers and something you could teach the kids to help with.

Pinching the butter in with your fingers

4. Add about 5 Tablespoons of milk to make a dough, toss it lightly at first to wet the ingredients then mix and squish with your fingers to form dough.

Add milk and form dough

5. Pat the dough in your hands to flatten into a disc, then on a floured board roll out into a circle or oval. Put the dough on parchment or ‘greaseproof’ paper.

Roll dough out with rolling pin

On parchment paper, ready for the oven

6. Top with what you want. sauteed onion, peppers, mushrooms, cooked chicken or turkey, sliced fresh tomato, a little red sauce or just some olive oil. Lastly top with lots of shredded cheese of your choice.

A well used pizza stone, hot in the oven

7. Have your oven preheated 400 F / 200 C with a pizza stone in it if possible. If you don’t have a pizza stone it’s ok. Just slide the pizza, keeping it on the paper, onto the hot stone or on a hot cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Notes:

• We like it with sauteed onion on the dough that’s brushed with olive oil. Top with sliced fresh tomatoes and cheese.
• You can divide the dough into smaller pieces and put different toppings on them, great for letting kids help.
• I have heard that if you don’t have a pizza stone, you can try turning a big cast iron pan over, let it heat in the oven and use the bottom of it as the stone. I leave my cast iron pans in the oven when I bake, the heat is good for them and it helps keep the heat of the oven consistently distributed.

Let me know if you try it and how it came out for you!

Don’t forget to visit my website and look around my galleries while you eat your pizza, then visit my shop on Zazzle and see all the beautiful gifts, note cards and prints of my paintings and photos!