Traditional Jewish apple cake made the perfect addition to a Shabbat dinner or weekend brunch.
Photo credit: Raúl Velasco with Alejandro Photography
You know I love making new and interesting versions of traditional desserts: Vanilla Bean Apple Cake; Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread; Mocha Brownies with Espresso Sea Salt; etc. But sometimes, holidays come around or family comes over and you just want the original, unadulterated version.
Well, good news for you and me! My friend Liz at The Lemon Bowl has written a series of e-cookbooks that do just that. Her third and latest e-book, Food From Our Ancestors: The Ultimate Jewish Shabbat Dinner, was written with the help of her Ema Ljuba. The two women spent time re-creating dishes that Ljuba has made for Liz’s family for years. The recipes are familiar and approachable traditional Jewish staples like challah (I can’t wait to try this one) and brisket. Of course I chose to make a cake first and I”m happy that I did.
This apple cake has the warm familiar flavors of the apple cake my mom made growing up. It’s a cinnamon scented, moist cake with generous layers of apples. Just the way any apple cake should be! The best part? It’s a fairly easy recipe that serves a large group of people and there is no mixer required. All stirring can be done by hand!
- 4 apples, peeled and sliced (granny smith recommended)
- 2 cups + 5 tablespoons granulated sugar (separated)
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup oil (I used canola)
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract’
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons butter (or parev margarine), cut into small cubes
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees; grease and flour an angel food tube pan and set aside
- In a large bowl, toss apple slices to coat with 5 tablespoons of the sugar and the cinnamon; set aside
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, remaining 2 cups of sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In a third small bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, orange juice and vanilla; slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined (do not overmix)
- Pour ⅓ of batter into tube pan then layer with ½ of the apples; add in another ⅓ of the batter and layer with remaining apples; pour in the final ⅓ of the batter on top
- In another small bowl, make the topping; mix the brown sugar with flour and sprinkle evenly on top of the cake batter; dot with butter
- Bake for 1½ hours or until toothpick comes out clean
