HARVEST APPLE CAKE

Once upon a time, many years ago, I served gingerbread to my mother. She commented that gingerbread should be served with a sauce, such as a lemon or caramel. I thought her comment odd since we occasionally had gingerbread when I was at home, and we never had a sauce with it. However, true to my training, I didn’t question her -- or perhaps I just didn't want to hear that she thought my cake was dry. As I’ve moved through life, I have continued to serve gingerbread with nothing more than Cool Whip, if desired.

I suppose my first experimental effort of the season isn’t actually gingerbread because the recipe doesn’t call for ginger. It was the molasses-based “Harvest Apple Cake” from Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for the Modern Hostess, 1940. As I said in a previous post, I have had both successes and failures with this recipe. Here’s the original recipe noting my alterations:

Harvest Apple Cake

1 ½ cups thinly sliced apples – I used 2 cups Gala apples, chopped

¾ cup Brer Rabbit molasses – I used Grandma’s Molasses.

1/3 cup shortening

½ cup hot water

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup sugar

1 t cinnamon

½ t cloves

¼ t mace or nutmeg – I used nutmeg.

1 ½ t soda

Slowly cook apples in molasses until tender. Cool. Melt shortening in hot water. Sift all dry ingredients and gradually add hot water mixture, stirring constantly to keep smooth. Stir in molasses and apples. Pour in greased pan and bake1/2 hour in moderate oven (350 F.). Serves 8 to 12.

In a previous effort, I’m sure I scorched the molasses and apples mixture. This time I used my small Crockpot on low for three hours. Two hours would have been sufficient, I think, because the molasses already smelled pretty hot. I then followed the directions and poured the batter into an 8x8 pan. I set my oven at 335 and checked the cake at 25 minutes. I took it out at 35 minutes.

Conclusions:

·       It was nicely done around the edges, but the center was a little under-done. And that under-done part was most delicious in my opinion.

·       The recipe doesn’t state the pan size. Next time, I would use the 7x11 pan instead of the 8x8. I think it was a little too much batter for the 8x8.

·       The recipe doesn’t call for salt. Mike immediately missed it. I would add ¼ teaspoon.

Mike prefers his cake plain. I used Cool Whip on my serving. KW