Is it just me, or is this week flying by? While sitting in class the other day numbly mulling over bleak facts such as : I have approximately 8 projects to complete in the next few weeks, and oh yeah, an oral exam in spanish, I realized there is a surefire equation to improving an otherwise awful monday. It’s nice to have a solid equation to rely on sometimes.
Sucky Monday (or any day really,) + any of the following things:
1. Wearing borderline ridiculous red pants (any of these should do nicely.)
2. Having a delish breakfast to wake up (such as Baked Banana Oatmeal)
3. Pilates! I’ve gotten obsessed, because you can easily work out this way at home with zerooo equipment, and no obnoxious musclehead guys throwing weights around and grunting. Aren’t those the worst? (This site is the awesome for at-home Pilates routines.)
4. Making this cake (keep on reading…)
= a MUCH improved weekday. It’s a mathematical certainty.
I guess a good blogger would be making cakes like this everyday, and posting as soon as it popped out of the oven, all the while having perfectly cute, pinterest-worthy nails, but sorry…this is real life. I totally made this cake like, um, November-ish? In real life I’m eating salads and lettuce wraps all week in a determined attempt to actually stick to the Passover diet that I usually cheat horribly on each year. For those of you without a temporary carb restriction on your life, bake away please!
Apple Cake
Adapted very slightly from Smitten Kitchen
5 apples, I used organic honeycrisp and they were wonderful
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 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.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.
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
There you have it - the perfect weekday cake, especially with a cup of tea.
