Celebrating the autumn
harvest is centuries old and spans many cultures worldwide. In ancient Greece, Oschophoria was a festival
held to celebrate the harvesting of grapes for wine, and in honor of Dionysus, the god of the vine. Oktoberfest, a 16 day beer festival (September
to October) originated in Munich, Germany, 1810, to honor the marriage of
Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. What better way to celebration the harvest of
hops and grains? Originally, the
American Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated on October 3rd to celebrate the
end of the fall harvest.
With the fall and winter
holiday season fast approaching, many cooks and bakers are thinking about what
creations will come from their bountiful harvest. Apples, pumpkins and other types of squash
will take center stage; while the last of the fruits and vegetables will be
canned or frozen.
Apples; even though they
are available all year long, there is just something special about the fall
apple. Maybe it’s all in the mind; the
clear, crisp fall breeze upon the skin, as one bites into a juicy apple and a
scent of spice suddenly wisps by. The
most delicious apple I have ever eaten was from an orchard on Mount Penn in
Reading, Pennsylvania. The “Mutsu” was a
specialty apple with the most delightful taste of spice in every bite. I have tried to find a similar type of apple,
but nothing has even come close. That is
probably because what the orchard growers called “Mutsu” was a name used by
other orchards as “Crispin”, “Pipkin” or “Liberty” apples; yet they were still not
the same. Well I might not find that
apple ever again, but I sure do have very fond memories of it.
Now I’m going to ask all
those wonderful made-from-scratch bakers to forgive me for the recipe I’m about
to write out. I came up with this semi-homemade
recipe when, during a past holiday season, I had surgery on one of my
hands. The hand was immobilized for 6
weeks, so I was very, very limited to what I could do with one free hand. So please feel free to use your own cake
batter recipe and freshly spiced up apple slices instead of the packaged goods
I mention. I used a Super Moist Yellow
Cake mix; yellow cake mix can also be bland, so I umpped up the flavor
intensity by adding apple pie spice mix and a bit of ground ginger. You could also think of this as a type of
"upside down" cake where the toppings are baking in the pan
underneath the cake layer, but when you flip the finished cake out, you see all
the lovely apples and caramel. I will
consider myself redeemed by that little feature of the semi-homemade cake.
Caramel Apple Cake
Ingredients:
For the Caramel Layer:
8 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups brown sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
For the Apple Layer:
1 (21 oz.) can apple pie
filling
For the Cake Layer:
1 box Super Moist Yellow
cake mix
1 tsp apple pie filling
Pinch of ground ginger
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F;
spray two 9 inch cake pans with nonstick baking spray. Cut out two circles from parchment paper to
line bottom of cake pans; spray the paper with the nonstick baking spray.
In a medium bowl, mix
together the ingredients for the caramel layer until it resembles coarse
crumbs.
Divide the mixture up
between the two pans pressing to the edges and 1/4 inch up the sides.
Divide the pie filling
between the two pans, spreading it out up to one inch from the edges.
Prepare the cake mix
according to packages directions, but add in the apple pie spice and ground
ginger. Divide the batter up between the
two pans and use a spatula to smooth it out.
Bake for 35-40 minutes;
cake will be golden browned and you might see some of the caramel oozing up the
sides of the cakes. Remove pans to a
wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.
When cooled, use a hot
knife around the edges to make sure the caramel will not stick to the sides of
the pan. Carefully flip the cakes onto a
serving plate and peel off the parchment paper.
Cut into 8 wedges and serve with a scoop of ice cream.
Makes 2 cakes, 8 servings
each.
Mary Cokenour
