All Things Apple

I had this past Friday off and spent most of the day doing my favorite thing: cooking. My theme was apples. The variations on the theme were apple butter (this recipe from epicurious) and apple cake (from Simply in Season).


The apple butter turned out well, I think. The recipe says it only needs 45 minutes of stovetop cooking (after pureeing the apples) but I found that I had to keep the heat very low or else the mixture bubbled strangely. Thus, it took me about 3 hours to get it to the consistency I wanted with it on very low heat. That's okay, though, because I was home all day anyway. My husband loves apple butter--I think I'll have to make more to keep up with demand, as this was a small batch. Next time I think I'll just make some from the applesauce I already have in the freezer.


This apple cake was a big hit. I made it to take along to my in-laws' (we spent this past weekend visiting them). My mother-in-law recently gave me a bundt pan, so I decided to make something in it to take to their house. I also used my new mixer to make it. The mixer was fun to use but I found it hard to stand there and watch a machine mix the batter for me. I like being able to control the speed, direction, etc, of mixing. I think as I get more comfortable using the mixer this feeling will go away. The cake calls for 5 cups of unpeeled, chopped apples, which seemed a little excessive but made for a moist, apple-y cake. The batter seemed at first like it was barely coating the apples but during baking it puffed up and formed into a real cake. It was devoured by the crew at my in-laws' house who were working on putting on a new deck. My mother-in-law didn't even get a piece (she was working all day). Definitely worth a repeat.