Apple Cake: Perfect tasty fruit dessert

Raw Apple Cake: You Gotta Love the Apple. For centuries good cooks have taken advantage of the tasty fruit to cook up pots of applesauce and bake them into pies, breads, and cakes. Here are some recipes for Raw Apple Cake. The first two recipes are very similar while the third recipe is a more traditional one that I’ve found in numerous recipe books and on recipe cards. Both have an interesting texture and taste, similar to that of a carrot cake.

Ginny’s Apple Cake, 1972, from Marjorie Philips recipe card

• 2 cups raw apples, cubed (small cubes)
• Stir in 1 egg, unbeaten until apples are well coated, then add 1 cup sugar and ¼ cup salad oil. Mix together well by hand.

Add:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon soda (baking soda)

Mix well and add:

• 1 cup chopped nuts
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Mix well and bake in 8” square pan, greased, at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Here’s a slightly different variation using spices.

Norma’s Apple Cake, 1967

•  2 cups raw apples, sliced small
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup cooking oil
•  1 cup sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine in one bowl, raw apples, sliced, with slightly beaten egg; stir and mix well. Add sugar, cooking oil, stir. Add chopped nuts, vanilla and spices, stirring well. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt; add to first mixture and blend well. Turn into greased oblong pan and bake in preheated over, 350 degrees, for about 35 minutes or until done.

If juice from your apple pie runs over in the oven, shake some salt on it, which causes the juice to burn to a crisp so it can be removed, Happiness is Italian Cooking, 1967

Apple Cake:

AKA: Raw Apple Cake, Old Fashion Apple Cake or German Apple Cake

The following Apple Cake Recipe appears to a popular recipe baked during the 60s and well into the 80s. The recipes were probably based on similar ones from the 40s. Though I’ve found a variety of names for this recipe, the ingredients and directions are almost identical.

“This cake is moist and different,” Kay, 1972

Raw Apple Cake, Louise, 1967

• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup salad oil
• 4 cups diced raw apples, peeled
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 2 cups all purpose flour (Some versions call for cake flour)
• 1 teaspoon soda (baking soda)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt

Beat sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla until foamy. Sift dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Mix apple and nuts into dough with hands. Dough will be stiff. Pour into oiled and floured long baking dish (9×13 baking dish) and bake in oven, 325 degrees, 45 minutes or until done. Serve with whipping cream. If served cold, may be frosted with buttered frosting. Serves 15.

Icing for Raw Apple Cake, Kay, 1972

• ¼ cup butter or margarine
• 1 (3 oz.) package cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Beat at high speed until creamy. Spread on slightly cooled cake.

Final Steps: preparing the cake pan; oil pan with an unsalted fat. If butter is used, melt butter and use the oil which rises to the surface. Apply with pastry brush or crumpled absorbent paper. Icing: Butter cakes are usually iced. Fillings or icing may be used between the layers and usually can be applied to best advantage after the cake has cooled. The Household Searchlight Recipe Book, 1938

In our area, the apple harvest lasts from August to December and peaks in October. Perfect timing for school lunches and office snacks. Nationally, the big producers from the Mid-Atlantic States area are Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland. So fresh apples are available and in the markets right now. Pick the variety you like and enjoy!