Fresh Apple Cake

Yum!  This cake probably won't win any beauty awards, but who cares?  It's delicious.  My mother-in-law has a binder full of recipes she's given to all her children, and I'm slowly making my way through them.  This is one that caught my eye, especially after we went apple picking a few weeks ago, and I decided to give it a shot!  I actually changed a few things - subbing in some whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and oats, among other things - but it's basically the same recipe.  I may or may not have had a piece for breakfast the next day, and I found it moistened a lot sitting over night.  Both times were delicious.  It tastes old-fashioned and homey and I love it!



Be sure to use apples that will hold up for baking.  I used Winesap, but Granny Smith, Macintosh, or the like will work great.  I added some oats and pulsed them a few times in the food-processor until they were more fine.  You could just use quick oats here or even oat flour if you have it.  I think you could very well reduce the total amount of sugar to 1 1/2 cups, but since I didn't actually try that, I didn't put that in the recipe. 

Fresh Apple Cake

4 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-3/4" chunks (about 4-5 cups total; see note)
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. old-fashioned oats, ground a bit (see note)
1/4 c. water
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, baking soda, salt, sugars, flours, oats (or oat flour), water, and cinnamon. Batter will be very thick.  Stir in apples and nuts, if using.  Combine as much as possible and spread into prepared baking dish.  Bake for 35-45 minutes until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cake will be dark brown.

Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Source: Adapted from my mother-in-law, Debbie Nowland