apple sauce

I have made, what, four apple cakes, and none of them have turned out.

Sigh.

But I still had a bunch of apples, so I pulled out Baby Cakes again, determined that perhaps this one last time, something from their cookbook would turn out the way I expected.

Cartoonist saw the book, and said, no, you are not going to make another apple cake, and you are not going to do it from Baby Cakes.

OK, I said, the continued, getting the apples ready to roast.

But as I read the recipe, I realized that I really just wanted to make apple sauce, and not from that book, but from the Jewish Holiday Treats, which is much easier, and I have done many times before.

• Cut up the apples
• put in water
• put in some sugar
• put in some cinnamon

Sorry to be so vague here, but I always wing it when I make it. I use up about four to six apples, but could be more, depending on their size. Sometimes I throw in pears.

Funny thing, was, when it was done, Cartoonist tried it on the apple cake I had made the other day, and said it worked, that perhaps that was one of the things it was missing.

Cutting up the apples

Yes I am still trying to find a way to get through all the apples that we have been getting from our CSA. Come winter, we will miss them, but for now, we just want to use them before they all go bad.

And I am being stubborn. I know there must be a good apple cake recipe out there.

One of the books I got when I was going while at the book shop was Perfect Cakes.  And, I am stubborn, because I keep thinking I can make a good cake without gluten, which I am sure I can.

Cartoonist mixing the mix

I should have known something was wrong when Cartoonist was having trouble stirring the mix. She tried a spoon, and a beater, and finally resorted to using her hands. I took a look and said, perhaps I should add another egg, which I did, and it didn’t’ make any difference, it was still like stirring mud.

Of course, it didn’t help that about half-way through the recipe I realized I wasn’t going to do it the way that the book was suggesting. Oh, I was doing the 3 pounds of apples, but I wasn’t going to grade the cake mixture through a box grater over the apples. Perhaps it woudl have turned out better, but maybe next time.

Instead, I just mixed up the ingredients, and popped it int he over.

• 4 cups of flour (I believe we used a mixture of whatever flours we had left, gluten free of course)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup of raw sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

After mixing it all together we baked it for about an hour at 350F.

The finished cake

The cake didn’t taste bad, it was just very dense. It had a pleasant enough taste, so I think if I were to do this one again, I would either put in more eggs, or more apple sauce, or try xyanth gum, although I haven’t had much luck with that one.

But, much as I love King Arthur, I am annoyed by their recipes.

I know the catalogue is designed to sell their products, and I do like their spices and flours, but am annoyed that they are always selling stuff that is already created, and list those in their recipes.

For example, the Secret Apple Spice Cake, which is on page 3, has three things that you can buy specifically from King Arthur, such as “Cake Enhancer”, and cherry Juice Concentrate (which is ays you can substitute apple sauce for, but then still lists more apple sauce in the recipe. Oh, and the third?  Just the flour, which is their prerogative.

I wanted to try a variation on this recipe, but don’t want to buy a cake enhancer, nor use a cherry juice concentrate. (because, of course, I have tons of apples again. More so, because I haven’t been cooking all week, because I have been ill).

My point, and I know I have strayed from it, is that from a company that appears to be telling people how to cook from scratch, they offer a lot of shortcuts. Their Peppery Cheese Puffs calls for using Pizza Dough Flavoring and Pizza Seasoning. I mean really. Do you keep those sorts of things around the house?

I was so thrilled that I was able to make something the other day, because I found a way to use all the ingredients I had in the house. (Which I will write about when I’m feeling well enough to download the photos and write again)

So, thanks for the gadgets and the flour, but I don’t want to buy the enhancers or the mixes, thank you very much.

Another apple cake, in the oven

On of the first things Cartoonist and I wanted to do was to bake something from the Savor cook book, which we had picked up on the cruise. We looked and looked, remembering how things tasted, and decided ont he Low-Fat Apple cake.

We didn’t have the ingredients for the Coulis sauce, nor for the glaze, but we had most of the stuff for the cake, so decided to go after that.

The recipe called for

• one pastry sheet, but we didn’t want that, so didn’t use it.
• 3 eggs (but we only had two duck eggs left)
• 1 1/2 cups for  brown sugar, but we like raw sugar so used that.
• 1 1/2 cups of canola oil, but we didn’t have that so use olive oil
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour (but we used coconut and brown rice flour
• 1 cup of hazelnut flour (but we used ground almond meal instead)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda (which we did have)
• 5 granny smith apples peeled, cored and quartered (which we didn’t have, so I just used whatever apples we did have.

and out of the oven

With all that, is it a wonder that when we mixed it up it seemed to not have enough liquid. I should have put apples sauce in it, but didn’t. It went in as hard as it came out. We decided that it tasted like apple flavored sand, and after eating a few of the apples on top, I threw the whole thing in  the trash, without even saving some for the raccoons and the compost bin.

Somehow she came up with bananas+ coconut= awesome. Cause it filled both our happy meters, i like bananas and she coconut ( mostly cooking with it though) We did more improvising when we got home though, i suggested the coco nibs but since there was a small amount left i just tossed it all in. Anyway I’m too lazy  so my mom will finish this entry more quickly then I.

bananas in the blender

OK, I, admin, have take over the rest of this.

OK, so of course the first thing one must do is purré the bananas. We decided that all liquid would go into the blender, and all the dry stuff would just be mixed in a bowel.

Cartoonist took over the liquid bits and I took over the dry bits. I think it was that there were bananas.

Dry mix

As mentioned above, I thought it would be fun to cook the cake with coconut flour.  I needed a base recipe, and although I love the Broccoli Forest, it is not gluten free cooking. I thought ti might be easier to use one of my gluten free books, but Baby Cakes didn’t have anything I wanted to start with. No base recipes.  So I went to my other gluten free book called, strangely enough “Gluten-Free Baking”. I haven’t liked anything from it yet, but what the heck, I was just looking for a base.

Did I following the recipe, even a little, well sort of. Here is what we did to it. For liquid we put in 6 bananas, 1/2 cup of coco nibs, capful of vanilla and capful of almound, one stick of melted button, 3 eggs, and one cup of soy milk.

The mix waiting to be bakes

For dry part I put in 2 and a half cups of coconut flour, 1 cup of raw sugar, 1/2 cup of almond meal, 1/1/2 table spoons of baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon of Xanthan gum, and a dash of salt. I mixed in my corner, and cartoonist ran the blender loud and long in her corner, and then we looked for a bowl to mix it all together. Everything was in the dishwasher, as we have been cooking every day this week. I had to dash into the running dishwasher to find a bowl for the dry stuff, but we had to wash out a bowl for the two to be combined.

Finished cake

We mixed it all up and poured it into the cake pans, and popped both into the oven. I had no idea what to expect.

What I should have done was a) grease the pans more and b) smooth out the cake more, but that can be done if we decide to make this one again. It was hard to get out of the pan when it was all said and done, but it did taste good. Just not show quality.

On the other hand, I have had things come out easily from the pans, and that had nothing to do with their quality. The lump that was the bread came out very well. It was a brick, but it came out when it was done.

Good enough to eat

And so, we come to the end of another failed, or not so failed attempt.