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erinhilt apple cakes
October 30, 2012
The Macintosh apples have been scarce this year, owing to some unseasonably warm weather in the spring that coaxed many of the province’s orchards to start putting out buds, only to be destroyed a few days later when temperatures plunged down to freezing. Our regular supplier didn’t have any at all, and we had to go north of London to find some. On Thanksgiving weekend we picked up a half bushel of small, slightly hail-damaged apples. Macs are the only apples I eat, and only while they’re in season, so after the last few disappear I won’t get any more until next fall.
I found this recipe in an old binder in the attic while searching for a recipe for a curry pickle that I made one time back in the 1990s, with a mind to adapting it for pickling Brussels sprouts (more on that later). I used to make these cakes a few times a year but haven’t made them since before we moved to Windsor in 2001. We don’t eat sweets very often, but it seemed a worthwhile use of our precious few remaining apples, if only for nostalgia’s sake. It’s a German recipe, handed down in the family of an old friend of ours named Erinhilt, with whom we drifted out of touch some time in the late 90s. I hope she wouldn’t mind my sharing it with you now.
This is the sturdy German farm girl* of the cupcake world, uncomplicated and only slightly sweet in flavour, with a crisp, buttery bottom and a nice substantial density in the middle. The eggs and butter provide the only moisture, so I like to soften the butter until it’s partially melted to make it all easier to mix together. Normally I would tweak a recipe like this to make it a little healthier, but given that I haven’t made it since I was in my 20s, we can afford to eat a little white sugar and white flour this one time. Substitute flax eggs for the eggs (1 tbsp ground flax seed + 1 tbsp water per egg) and margarine for the butter if you want to make it vegan (I used to make them with margarine and they were just as good).
APPLE CAKES
makes about 15-20
-4 to 6 apples
-4 eggs, lightly beaten
-1 cup sugar (white sugar, or your preferred sweetener)
-1/2 lb butter, softened
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 tbsp baking powder
-3.5 cups all-purpose flour
-small amount of brown sugar and cinammon for dusting, mixed together in a small bowl
Skip the apples and mix all other ingredients in order. The dough will be very stiff and sticky, like this:
Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with butter and fill the cups 3/4 full.
Quarter, core and peel just enough apples for the first dozen if you only have one muffin tin; if you have to do a second batch, it’s better to prepare the apples fresh so they don’t have time to brown.
Make four lengthwise slices in each apple quarter, ending about half a centimetre or so from the ends.
Then roll the outside of the apples in the cinnamon and sugar mixture, and put one on top of each cup, coaxing the gaps open slightly as you gently press them down into the tops of your cakes. You don’t need to actually open the gaps, just get them ready to open; they should spread out once the cakes rise around them.
Bake at between 350° and 375° Fahrenheit (I used 375°, but my oven runs a little to the cold side) for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean.
*“sturdy German farm girl” is how I always describe my genetic physique, strong and solid like my grandmother, a Pennsylvania Dutch descended farm girl who still lives on her own and takes care of herself and hauls her washing machine across the kitchen floor to do laundry and still works at her home tailoring business into her 90s and is my inspiration for old age.
Posted by jodi on October 30, 2012 at 3.50pm
Categories: mama's in the kitchen
Comments on "erinhilt apple cakes"
Yum! I may actually find an excuse to have the oven on this afternoon (one cannot simply put the oven on for cake – too extravagant) and make these!
Posted by Amy P on October 31, 2012 at 7.31am :: link
a sexy, sturdy German farm girl, Jodi
nice recipe – thanks for sharing
Posted by merry ellen on November 13, 2012 at 7.24pm :: link
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