Grandma Audrey’s Apple Cake

It’s a lovely day to bake an apple cake.  It’s snowing.  Don’t want to go anywhere.  Might as well fill the home with the fragrance of apples and cinnamon -- it’ll tickle everyone’s fancy.  

This recipe is brought to you by Kurt’s Gramma Audrey.  It’s easy, pretty fool-proof, and has an old-fashioned flavor and texture -- light, crisp & meringue-like on the outside, densely moist & studded with apples on the inside.

Grandma Audrey’s Apple Cake

Grandma Audrey loved to ice her apple cake right out of the oven with an egg yolk & powdered sugar icing. Not wasting anything, she’d slip that extra egg white (not in the original recipe) into the cake batter... with a lot of love, of course.  An extra egg & love -- now you know the secret.

2 cups flour

Pinch of kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 eggs, divided

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups peeled & chopped apples

Preheat oven to 350°.  Butter or pan-spray a 10-inch springform pan; set aside.

Sift together flour, salt, soda and spices in medium bowl; set aside.  

In mixing bowl stir together egg yolks, sugar, oil and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients and stir to combine.  

In small bowl, whisk egg whites to stiff peaks; carefully fold into cake batter.  Fold in apples & love.  Pour into prepared pan.  

Bake until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. 

Side Note: the batter will seem too stiff to incorporate the dry ingredients; don’t worry about it.  Stir everything together the best you can - the apples will release their juices while baking and it will turn out fantastic.