Last weekend my father came up from Georgia to visit. He brought along my step mother, Chuy, and brother, Tony. It rained. And rained. And rained. During a lull of semi dry weather, we took advantage and went to Averil’s apple orchard to pick apples. Averil’s is in Washington, CT and has been a farm since before the Revolution. We go every year to pick apples and get cider. This year we found some awesome maple sugar coated peanuts. Dave and I polished them off before the weekend was over.
We picked two kinds of apples, Rhode Island Greenings and Sparta. I have been putting off any kind of baking but found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I have a weak spot for caramel with my apples so I tweaked it a bit and it was fabulous hot out of the oven.
We picked two kinds of apples, Rhode Island Greenings and Sparta. I have been putting off any kind of baking but found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I have a weak spot for caramel with my apples so I tweaked it a bit and it was fabulous hot out of the oven.
Caramel Apple Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen
6 apples, I used 4 Greening, 2 Sparta
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
20 individually wrapped caramels
2 tablespoons apple cider
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted (I used 1 and 1/2 cups unbleached white flour and 1 and 1/4 cups unbleached white whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup apple cider
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, 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.
Unwrap caramels and place in saucepan over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons apple cider and heat until melted. Keep on low heat while preparing batter.
Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, apple cider, 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.
Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Drizzle with half on the melted caramel. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Drizzle with the rest of the caramel or to taste. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean (it took about 2 hours in my oven).
