Apple Cake with Vanilla Icing

I needed a recipe that would use up a lot of apples that had gotten kind of soft. I get sick of making apple pies & apple crisps. Oh, and I had no butter so that was another issue (NO butter? Yikes! That is sooo unusual!). I got on allrecipes.com and went straight to the "ingredients" sifter. I came up with "Blue Ribbon Apple Cake". It uses 4 apples & vegetable oil. Perfect!! Of course I had to make a double recipe so I used up 8 apples! Yeah! Actually, I was worried about making my cake too moist or "wet", so I ended up using about 6 apples but after baking and tasting, I easily could have used all 8 of the apples that I had sliced. The end result was 8 mini loaf pans. The apple chunks could have been bigger or thicker but I was worried about them thoroughly cooking so I sliced the apples very thin. You see, the original recipe calls for a bundt pan which means the cake would be in the oven for a long time. I figured that since I was using mini loaf pans, the apples would end up being crunchy because they would have a much shorter baking time. But the apples ended up being a perfect texture in the cake but could have been more plentiful. I liked this cake alot. I put a bit more spice in than was called for and I used a different pan. Oh, and I added the vanilla icing, because in my world, everything is better with frosting or icing! The only thing that could have been a bit better but I'm not sure if it was my doing or not.....the crumb was a bit tough. Maybe I mixed it too long? Maybe it would have been better with cake flour? Sift the dry ingredients first? It was still a fine crumb, and moist but just a bit tough. But this cake was so tasty and would be great for breakfast. It's kind of more like a quick bread but I call it cake since that is what the recipe calls it. And I like to think that it's somewhat healthy since there are so many apples in it. I bet it would be wonderful with partial wheat flour or cake flour. But anyway, I DO recommend this cake as a new and exciting way to use up some old apples. For those of you who like nuts, I bet pecans or walnuts would be great in this cake! Be careful about overbaking. The top of the loaves still looked a bit wet when I removed them from the oven but they were actually thoroughly baked. The recipe calls for a 350 degree oven but I felt my loaves were baking too quickly, so I put it down to 320 degrees about 1/4 way through the baking time.

Peeling and slicing all 8 apples is what took the longest in this recipe. Besides that, it was easy to throw together. I used a mix of a bunch of different apples - jazz apples, cameo, braeburn and maybe fuji.

I filled my mini loaf pans about 1/3 full of batter, layered some apples, then put more batter on top of that and then finally a row of apples. The apple slices have been tossed in sugar & cinnamon.

How rustic looking.

You see how the top still looks kind of wet? It wasn't, it just appeared that way. That's why it would be easy to mistake that shine for underbaking.

Mmmm... vanilla icing! I made the icing really thick so it did not just drip quickly down the sides. It was just a mix of powdered sugar, vanilla & whole milk.

Ooops....cut it too soon and it all fell apart! Too too warm. I need to be patient. Darn.

Oh yes, this is a perfect time to slice it. Actually, I can't imagine this cake would be as good without the vanilla icing (but then again, I say that about any dessert).

Look at those tender chunks of apples! Gosh, I wish you could have smelled this cake. It reminded me of autumn. My favorite time of year.

Blue Ribbon Apple Cake
from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour 2 1/4 cups sugar, divided 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 eggs 1 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup orange juice 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 medium baking apples, peeled and thinly sliced 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, 2 cups sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine eggs, oil, orange juice and vanilla; add to flour mixture and mix well. In a bowl, toss apples with cinnamon and remaining sugar. Spread a third of the batter into a greased 10-in. tube pan. Top with half the apples. Repeat layers. Carefully spread remaining batter over apples. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack; cool. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Vanilla Icing: Powdered Sugar (About 3 cups? depending on how thick you want your icing) Vanilla Milk