Apple Cake

I hope all of you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Mr. G and I went to the lantern floating ceremony at Ala Moana Beach Park last night and it was so beautiful. There were probably close to 10,000 people there, I'm sure one of you was there with me. I haven't been to the ceremony for many years, but after seeing it last night, I wonder why I don't go. I know originally Memorial Day was to honor the men and women who died serving our country, but I guess it has become a day to remember those who have left us. And that was exactly what I did.  It was so peaceful to be at the beach, looking out into the sunset with the beautiful lanterns floating in the water and just taking a moment to remember those who left us. 

photo from Civil Beat

Since I had a long weekend, I decided to bake bake bake!! There will be more posts from this weekend coming up. I baked up a storm this weekend..heehee =P First is this Apple Cake. The other day Foodland had a crazy sale on Fuji Apples. I went crazy and bought 10 lbs!!! There was no way the two of us would be able to finish 10 lbs of apples. So I searched for a yummy apple recipe. I decided on this Apple Cake from Smitten Kitchen. This cake is really easy to make, it does take a bit of time in the oven, but it's worth it. The cake is moist and the apple gets all soft and yummy. If I can't decide on what to do with the other 6 lbs of apples, I might make it again!! Here's the recipe.

Apple Cake
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

5 apples (see note)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

3. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for 6 McIntosh apples.  My apples were really large, so I used 5.  I think it was about 4 lbs of apples.  
• The original recipe has an option to add 1 cup of chopped walnuts.  I didn't have walnuts, so I decided not to add it.