Recycled Apple Cake recipes keep lots of doctors away

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. I don’t know if data exists that lends credibility to this old wives’ tale, but for me, there’s nothing tastier than a fresh, crisp apple picked directly from a country orchard. It’s our cold temperatures that give these apples that extra panache. This weekend I visited several of the orchards in the area and was overwhelmed with the selection and varieties of apples. Needless to say, I over-did the purchases and now have a surplus of apples. So why not a recipe for apple cake?  I knew I’d find apple cake recipes in my newly acquired, oversized plastic bags filled with recycled recipes. Apparently originating from somewhere in Illinois, these recipes came to me through New York. Here are two.

Jewish Apple Cake, 1970s

• 3 cups flour
• 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
•  1 cup cooking oil
•  4 eggs
•  ½ teaspoon salt
•  2 ½ teaspoons vanilla
•  3 teaspoons baking powder
•  6 tablespoons orange juice and rind from one orange

Apple Coating

•  4 large apples
•  2 teaspoons cinnamon
•  6 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a large tube pan. In large bowl beat together the flour, sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, baking powder, orange and oil until smooth. After you have coated the apple slices, put a layer of batter in pan. Add a layer of apples and so on until the last layer is apples. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a wood pike.

Nothing like a cup a coffee to go along with apple cake. Here’s a recipe from a bride’s cookbook from 1911. I’ve also included a recipe for Vienna Coffee below.

Coffee for Six Persons

Take one full cup of ground coffee, one egg, a little cold water; stir together, add one pint boiling water, boil up; then add another pint of boiling water, and set back to settle before serving.

Apple Nut Torte; Katherine, 1953

Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees.

• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 2/3 cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups peeled and chopped apples
• 1 cup chopped nuts. Note from Katherine: I usually toast my nuts in the oven.

Add eggs to sugar and beat well until mixture is thick. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the eggs and sugar. Fold in apples and nuts. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Very good with whipped cream.

Vienna Coffee, 1911

Take equal parts Mocha and java coffee; allow on heaping tablespoon of coffee to each person, and two extra to make good strength. Mix one egg with grounds, pour on coffee one-half as much boiling water as will be needed, let coffee froth, then stir down grounds and let boil five minutes; then let cover stand where it will keep hot, but not boil, from five to ten minutes, and add rest of water. To one pint cream add white of an egg, well beaten; this is to be put in cups with sugar, have coffee added.

Did you know that if you add a pinch of salt to ground coffee before boiling it will improve the flavor?

“THE FAT OF THE LAND IS LETON BUTTER”; good housewives are never without it. The Brides Cookbook, San Francisco, 1911