Teddie’s Apple Cake

When DH and I first got married, we had a subscription to the New York Times newspaper. Pre-internet, this was our source for news, good or bad. He, being of the more intellectual bent, actually read it for the news. I, after a cursory look through the paper for my daily aggravation, really waited for the Wednesday Living section.

My love affair with Craig Claiborne, RIP, who was the food editor of the Times, and Pierre Franey, RIP, a chef who wrote the 60 Minute Gourmet column was a deep and passionate relationship although they never knew this. 😉

This was before the concept of a foodie existed however, they understood people were passionate about food and cooking, and hopefully always will be. There were many wonderful recipes I diligently made from the paper but the standout one I continued to make throughout the years was Teddie’s Apple Cake, in an article in the Living Section by Jean Hewitt. I never found out who Teddie was but they must’ve been amazing since the cake sure is.

While some of my kids aren’t into fruit dessert, Hubby and I both are, as is my Mom. Since we now can please ourselves more, I make more fruit desserts than previously and the best joke is, I made this cake a few weeks ago again and when I came down in the morning, discovered that my son Netanel and a few friends had eaten a third of the cake (meant for Shabbat!) and he is one of the NO FRUIT IN CAKE PLEASE MOM people. Huh, the power of the Teddie Apple Cake strikes again.

I threatened him that if any more cake disappeared before Shabbat, he’d have to bake me a new one. I still suspect that more went missing but can’t prove it. Hmmm.

To the cake- It is a fairly easy cake to make but is definitely better if you follow a few instructions (hence the missing 1/3 of a cake). I’ve tweaked it a bit but I feel it’s an upgrade. 🙂

First, peel and chop up the apples. I use about 3 large apples and have found this sufficient. If you prefer smaller pieces of apple, go for it. Just leave them in enough of a size to not totally disappear into the cake.

I already know that people will want to scant the oil and I have dropped 1/4 cup myself on occasion but don’t do more or you will ruin the texture. Beat the oil and sugar (yes, you can drop 1/4 cup of the sugar if you must but NOT MORE- for clarity’s sake, it’s better with the full measure of oil and sugar) till it turns almost white about 5 minutes.

You should definitely do this since I’ve seen that if you merely stir it together briefly, it does not combine well and basically looks like oily sugar. While this doesn’t turn the fluffy consistency of sugar and butter/marg, as you see in the pic, the consistency thickens. But then, don’t walk away or it can separate. So, as soon as the oil/sugar mixture looks like above, add the eggs, one at a time to incorporate properly, and beat till light and creamy.

Whilst the eggs/oil/sugar mixture is incorporating, take a bowl and mix together the dry ingredients. The addition of the cinnamon turns the mix a cinnamony color so don’t worry that’s normal.

Add the vanilla to the egg mixture, and then shake the microplaned/zested lemon peel into the flour, add last the chopped apples which you lightly toss with the dry ingredients as well. This keeps the apples suspended properly in your cake and they won’t all sink to the bottom.

Spray oil and lightly flour a bundt pan or a tube pan and bake on 350 for about an hour or so, testing it with a toothpick to make sure it is fully baked. The toothpick should come out with a few moist crumbs or possible no crumbs but not gooey.

This is truly a great cake that has survived over 40 years of baking. A slice of home and comfort, sugar and spice and everything nice. B’tayavon!

Teddie’s Apple Cake

Oil spray for greasing pan, and flour for dusting the oil spray

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups flour

Grated/microplaned peel of one lemon

3 cups (I use 3 large apples, or 4 medium) peeled, cored and thickly sliced and then chopped into smaller pieces (see pic above) tart apples, Granny Smith or any firm apple that will hold up to baking

Powdered sugar for garnish (optional but so pretty)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch bundt or tube pan. Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer with a paddle attachment till almost white in color about 5 minutes. In the meanwhile, assemble the remaining ingredients. After the 5 minutes, add the eggs. one at a time, really! till each egg is incorporated and beat until the mixture is creamy and light, another 3-5 minutes.
Add the vanilla.

Stir together 3 cups of flour, the salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir the
lemon peel and peeled, chopped apples into the dry ingredients, toss till coated. Gently add the dry ingredients into the batter, beat briefly just until combined. Don’t overbeat or you toughen the cake. The batter is quite thick. It should be, that’s fine.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour to an hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before turning out. To help release from bundt/tube pan, when COOLED COMPLETELY gently press down (yes, yes) on the cake, pushing against it to help release it, lightly run a knife around the edges and especially around the tube part. Put a plate on top of the cake pan and quickly flip over to plate it. It should come out whole and beautiful. Shake powdered sugar through a sieve over the cake for a lovely finish.