Anything But Corn-Fed: Healthy College Cooking in Rural Iowa

This recipe is not cheap and not very local, but I wanted to make something really special for my really special friend Grace on her 20th birthday.

I flipped through Abby Mandel’s Celebrating the Midwestern Table for this dessert, one of Abby’s favorites: Caramel-Glazed Apple Chunk Cake. Yeah. This sounded right up Grace’s alley (or anyone with taste buds) and it’s apple season! My friends Marissa, Chloe, Marissa’s friend Trinity, and I baked it on Saturday afternoon, a good break from statistics homework.

Caramel-Glazed Apple Chunk (Birthday) Cake

Cake:

2 1/2 cups plus 1 tbl flour (available locally but I used flour that someone left in my cupboard)

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground nutmeg because my roommate had it)

1 tsp each: baking soda, salt

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar (maybe I will try this again sometime with honey to local-ize it)

3 large eggs (my local ingredient!)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 tbl orange juice

1 1/2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch chunks, about 3 1/4 cups (local!)

1 cup chopped pecans (local!)

Glaze:

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Put a rack in the center of the oven; preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 12-cup-capacity (10-inch) Bundt cake pan (a gift from Abby); lightly dust it with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. Sift (another gift from Abby) the 2 1/2 cups of flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

3. Use a mixer to beat the veggie oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla for 3 minutes. Add the sifted ingredients and the oj and mix until combined. Toss the apples and pecans with the remaining tablespoon of flour and stir them in the batter with a wooden spoon. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

(Trinity chopping apples and Chloe posing/mixing the batter)

4. Bake until a toothpick insterted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

5. While the cake is baking, bring all the ingredients for the glaze to a simmer in a small saucepan for 3 minutes, uncovered.

6. When the cake is done, let it rest on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto a rack placed on a sheet of foil. Brush the warm cake with the glaze, reapplying the glaze as it drips onto the foil. Let the cake rest 1 hour before serving.

7. The cake is best served warm. To reheat, place it on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven about 8 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Mandel, Abby. Celebrating the Midwestern Table: Real Food for Real Times. New York, NY: Doubleday. 1996. 288-89.

(The final product and handing it off to Grace before devouring it)