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LEARN TO COOK : JEWISH APPLE CAKE

What I am about to share with you is hands down the MOST delicious dessert I have ever been in contact with. I dream of this cake. I lurve this cake. I have a sneaking suspicion that what makes this cake so special is the fact you put orange juice in it! That and the pounds of sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon you pour into the batter (just turn your head when adding all the good stuff and you can pretend you didn’t know). My Aunt Michelle first introduced it to me 8 months ago when she served it for dessert at her house. For this, I owe her my first-born. Kidding. I’m not really going to give her my first-born for a cake, but I did think about it.

My aunt Michelle is the most generous, loving and kind person I know.  She is the bed-rock in our family. She has always shown up when her family has needed her and I’m not sure how we would survive without her. She spent months back east (away from her life ) taking care of her sister Debbie (my aunt) when she was dying. She did the same when my Grandfather Tilly was ill and needed her. I don’t know how she does it. She is constantly teaching me what it means to be selfless.

I still feel bad about the time she came to pick me up at kindergarten and I looked at her with a major attitude and said, “I don’t take kindly to strangers”. I totally knew who she was and to this day still don’t know why I said that to her! She did not deserve such treatment!

On top of all her lovely qualities as a human being, she can also bake! Sadly, I didn’t learn this until I started 365 til 30 because  I wasn’t that concerned with who could cook or bake unless their name was Whole Foods. I have been surprised to learn that I have a lot of good cooks in my life!

Since eating this cake, for the first time I’ve hounded Michelle to invite me over so she could teach me how to make it and I finally succeeded! Even Brian, who is not a cake kinda guy, loved it. I brought a huge batch home but trashed it the next morning when I realized where it was headed for me- having cake for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert is never a good idea. I had to be stopped.

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Ingredients:

6 cups of peeled thinly sliced granny smith apples (about 3 large apples)/ 1 1/2 cups, plus 5 tablespoons of granulated sugar divided/ 4 teaspoons of cinnamon/ 3 cups of all-purpose flour/ 1 tablespoon of baking powder/ 1/2 teaspoon of salt/ 4 eggs/ 1/2 cup of light brown sugar/ 1 cup of vegetable oil/ 1/2 cup of orange juice/ 2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease, sugar and flour a ten inch bundt pan/ combine apple slices with 5 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon set aside/ combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside/ beat eggs with remaining sugar and brown sugar, add vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla extract and beat well/ gradually blend in flour mixture and mix well/ Pour one-third of the mixture into pan and top with half the apple slices/ pour in batter and top with the rest of the apple slices/ top with remaining batter. make sure all the apple slices are covered/ bake 55 to 60 minutes until the top turns golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean/ let it cool ten minutes

Tags: 365 til, 365 til 30, apple cake, Cooking, dinner parties, family, goals, jewish apple cake, Kate McClafferty, Kitchen, Laughter, Learn how to cook, Love, philadelphia style apple cake, turning 30