My grandmother, who lived with us when I was growing up, had a serious sweet tooth and would bake something almost every day.
In the spring, it was coconut cream pie. In the summer, homemade ice cream and peach pie. And during fall apple season, she would bake this very simple apple cake and serve it warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
My mother and I loved this cake -- it's so simple, yet so satisfying and comforting -- and never thought to write it down before my grandmother died. For years, we searched her recipe cards to no avail, until last summer, when I was doing research for a new cookbook called Steak and Cake. Happily, we came across a recipe card that looked like it might be the thing. I made the cake immediately and as my mother and I tasted it, we finally knew that we had found the one. Sometimes, the memory outshines the reality. But in this cake, it did not.
As I was testing recipes for the cookbook, I added my grandmother's apple cake to 10 other cakes, some classic and some new-fangled, for a neighborhood tasting -- the cookbook writer's version of a "cake walk." Everyone gravitated toward my grandmother's cake.
I had to stop myself from adding a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter as I rarely make a cake without it, but I decided that I should preserve this cake just the way my grandmother made it. The batter is very stiff -- like cookie dough -- before you add the apples, but rest assured as soon as the apples give up their juice, the batter loosens and will bake beautifully.
Grandmother Odom's Apple Cake
2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil such as Crisco
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 generous cups raw apples, peeled and cut coarse (about 5 large Granny Smith apples)
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Confectioner's sugar for decorating, optional
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a Bundt pan with baking spray or lightly grease and dust with flour, shaking out excess.
In a mixing bowl, beat together sugar and oil and add eggs one at a time until creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon and baking soda. Add flour mixture, in three additions, to sugar mixture, mixing well between additions.
Fold in chopped apples. Let sit for 5 minutes, stir well and add walnuts. Mix well.
Pour batter into prepared pan and place on a baking sheet to bake. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan 10 minutes, then invert on a cake cooling rack. Dust top with confectioner's sugar if desired.
Makes 8 to 12 servings.
Food on 10/12/2016