Apple Spice Cake

This cake is SO good....

Come on guys, you've heard this type of joke...Now you're supposed to ask: "How good is it?"

This cake is SO good. Let's say you were on day two of a (so far very successful) seven day cleansing diet...

You'd break it for this cake.

I applaud you, Zach and Brenda. You made it further than I ever will.

Apple Spice Cake
adapted slightly from marthastewart.com

Cake
3 cups flour
1 T cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 1/3 c vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3-4 (I used four) Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I had about 3 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts (OPTIONAL...and if you're like me, you'll just leave them out.)
1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Flour the pan. (Or use the nonstick cooking spray with flour). In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, soda and salt. Set aside. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine oil, sugar and eggs. Mix on high speed until lemon yellow. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Add apples (and nuts, if you're into that) and mix to combine. Add vanilla. Mix until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 60-90 minutes (mine took about an hour and ten minutes). Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and let cool completely (actually, it might be good warm). Serve with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream.

Caramel Sauce
this is the simplest caramel sauce I've ever made
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 t vanilla
pinch of salt

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until thickened to desired consistency.

We made this Friday night for my Mother-in-Law's birthday. There was some leftover (I don't know how). We wrapped the cake up airtight and left it on the counter and put the rest of the caramel in the fridge. Let me tell you, it was still just as moist and tasty when we ate it for our Sunday snack two days later!

...man shall not live by bread alone...

...but if you had to live on bread/muffins alone, you could happily live on these.

Stuck on a deserted island? Take these muffins (and a raft).

If I weren't already HAPPILY married, I'd marry these muffins.

If these muffins were one of my kids, I could EASILY pick a favorite.

On death row and requesting your last meal? I hate to sound repetitive, but ask for THESE muffins.

If you haven't got the picture yet, these are quite possibly the best conference muffins I have ever made.

Mini Butter Puffs
loosely based on a recipe from Joy of Cooking
Makes 2 dozen standard size muffins, or 4-5 dozen mini muffins (I like the mini...you can eat them like popcorn.)

Muffins
4 cups flour
2 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) warm melted butter

Coating
1-2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Muffins
Preheat oven to 375. Coat muffin cups with baking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, sugar and butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over-mix. The batter should not be smooth. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into one or two muffins comes out clean (about 10 minutes for mini muffins, 12 minutes for standard size muffins.)

Coating
Melt butter in a small bowl. Combine sugar and cinnamon in shallow bowl. While muffins are still quite warm, remove from muffin pan. Dip the entire muffin (one at a time) in melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar. Set on a wire rack to cool.

Almond Cake

School is back in and we are almost back on a schedule.
There's a chill in the air, and I am excited to turn the oven on and start baking again.

Here is another delicious recipe from the cyclist's mother. She made this often while the cyclist was courting me. Ha, ha. That makes him sound so smooth.

I love to make it because it is a snap to whip up. I have all of the ingredients on hand. And--most importantly--it tastes great. It has a dense, moist crumb, and a rich almond flavor. You'd think it was made of marzipan.

Give this one a try. You'll be impressed.

Almond Cake

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs
slivered almonds

Mix sugar, flour, butter, almond extract, and eggs on high for 3 minutes. Pour into greased pie pan. Sprinkle with slivered almonds. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

See. Isn't that simple!