Apple Walnut Whiskey Cake

When I was a kid, my mom used to make a German Apple Cake. Our recipes mostly came from neighbors trying to help out a lady from France who could barely speak a lick of English but had two hungry non-stop sons. It was stiff batter with apples, sugar and cinammon on top. It absorbed more milk than a black hole, almost. Dense, plain, you could taste the salt in some bites of the bottom of the cake, and she burnt it sometimes, so it felt like a kind of penance to eat some, save for the apples being still good.

I tried to make a healthy apple cake from Heidi Swanson's blog, but it was too dry and healthy for us, probably because we are not from California or used to cakes so crumby and dry. I mean, 2.5 cups of whole wheat pastry flour! I think she undercooked it, said she undercooked it, and then gave a time for it to bake that was *not* undercooking it. My mistake.

So then I took my standby Martha Stewart Saffron Pear Cake and made some serious adjustments. To avoid confusion, here's the recipe in its entirety:

9 X 13" ceramic or metal pan (aluminum makes a more caramelized topping for some reason -- hotter).

3 apples sliced thin and put in lemon water
a bag of crushed walnut pieces
1 stick of butter
1.5 cups sugar
1 7/8 cup flour
scant 2 t baking powder
3/4 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves/nutmeg
3/4 t salt
7/8 C buttermilk
1/3 C vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Let butter be very soft. Mix it with 1/3 C of the sugar, a third of the cinnamon, and dashes of cloves and nutmeg. Mix until fluffy.

2. Put parchment paper in the bottom of the pan. The strip of it can be a little narrower than the pan.

3. Spread this butter mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan.

4. Sprinkle walnuts in a pretty thick layer over the butter and sugar mixture, but leave about an inch free of nuts all the way around the edge of the pan. Move a nut if you have to. If you don't do this, the apples will slop out when you flip the cake: it'll look like a dog got to it.

5. Layer apples thinly over walnuts. Leave that perimeter of butter alone.

6. Mix the rest of the sugar and everything else together. Pour carefully over the nuts and sugar/butter mixture.

7. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Make sure toothpick comes out pretty clean, maybe a little crumb or two on it.

8. Let cake sit for 10 minutes. IMPORTANT.

9. Find a platter big enough to turn the cake over on. Do it. Peel off the parchment.

10. Let this cool.

11. Then, while it's cooling, drizzle some Jim Beam on it somehow. Poke little skewers in it and soak it through or give it a Jim Beam IV. Whatever it takes, maybe even the way they get whiskey into a drunk fruitcake. You wouldn't want it to cook it off either.

I'd serve with plain whipped cream, or if you can't imagine drizzling Jim Beam directly on the cake, put it in the whipping cream where it can be present more subtly.

The top should be between a sugar syrup and a carmelized sauce.

Someone else thought apples and whiskey were a good idea: Butterscotch Whiskey Sauce. Indeed.

POUND CAKE

Here's the second copy, in Mom's handwriting, of the pound cake recipe. It's actually several recipe cards held together with...medical tape of course.

This cake is not too sweet, so you keep eating it, even though it's got a truckload of butter in it. Mmm.

8 egg whites (1 cup)
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder and 1 t salt
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of butter (4 sticks/or one pound)
8 egg yolks
1 T grated orange peel (don't grate to the white pith -- it's bitter)
2 T grated lemon peel (same)
2 T lemon juice

Let egg whites warm to room termperature (about an hour).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

2. Into a large bowl, sift the flour, salt and baking powder and 1/4 t of the salt.

3. With mixer at high speed, beat egg white with 1/4 teaspoon salt till foamy throughout.

4. To the eggwhites, add 1 cup of the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time until stiff peaks form.

5. In a different large bowl at high speed, beat butter with remaining cup of sugar until light and fluffy (5 minutes) Important!

6. Beat egg yolks into the butter mixture with mixture on high speed; beat in peels, lemon juice and 2 T of water until smooth.

7. Divide flour mixture into thirds and at low speed blend the flour into the butter mixture a third at a time until just combined. Takes about seven minutes to get all the flour incorporated.

8. Fold in egg whites (or use lowest speed on hand mixer). Blend in egg whites, half at a time just until blended. Scrape batter into Bundt pan in 350 oven for 60 minutes. Cool on rack 15.

You want glaze? Mama doesn't make it with glaze. But here's the recipe anyway, for the glaze.

1 T butter
1 pound confectioner's sugar
1 t grated lemon peel
1/3 C lemon juice

Blend butter, sugar, lemon juice, until smooth then drizzle over cake.

PUMPKIN BREAD

This is that pumpkin bread made with raisins and walnuts. Way better than a fruitcake, and good served with whipped cream. It's not too sugary, and if you reduce the amount of sugar by a third or half, it still tastes pretty good. I have memories of this cake being eaten by Jack at midnight in the kitchen, and also I remember the cool whip sticking to his mustache. Good times. :-)

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cups butter (11 and a half tablespoons)
2 and 2/3 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
2/3 cups water
3 and 1/2 cups flour
2 t baking soda
1.5 t salt
.5 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup raisins

Grease and flour a Bundt pan or two loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 65 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

This is a pretty good gift for neighbors and co-workers.

*THE* PUMPKIN PIE

This is The Pumpkin Pie recipe. No other pumpkin pie compares. It's in the Time-Life Foods of the World set, 1968, often seen in thrift stores (American volume). Well, other pumpkin pies are fine, but if you really want to do something special for Jack, David or me, make us this pie.

Find some pie crust, pre-made or from scratch.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll out the pie doughs and bake for about 8 minutes. This makes the crust flakier, or just don't bother. Dave likes chewy dough and I think Jack might too.

The following recipe fills two deep dish shells since making only one would be kind of wrong.

FILLING

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1 t ground ginger
6 eggs, lightly beaten in separate bowl
4 T applesauce
3 cups pureed pumpkin (Libby's)

Here's what the cookbook says. Ahem.

"In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Stire thoroughly, then add the lightly beaten eggs and the applejack. Stir in the pumpkin puree. Carefully pour the filling into the pie shell(s). Bake for 40-50 minutes in the center of the oven until the filling is firm and the center of the pie barely quivers when the pie pan is gently moved back and forth. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or stiffly whipped cream.

(Or Cool Whip).