Old Fashioned Apple Cake

I couldn't be arsed to spend two minutes arranging the apples neatly. Look, I baked a cake-you want it fancy as well?



I'm posting this recipe as the end result was pretty good, but bear in mind the recipe itself left quite a bit to decipher. The cake comes from a small, softbound cookbook, From Williamsburg Kitchens 1993. The recipes are presented as, "Regional" rather than historical, which makes sense as I doubt very much they were making use of hydrogenated vegetable shortening in colonial days.

The "recipe" is little more than a list of ingredients and an oven temperature. I can tell you, it took closer to 45 minutes to bake than the 25 suggested. I am going to go ahead and post what I actually did, though I really felt the cake was somewhat overbaked at the edges and underbaked at the centre. I'm not a fan of Crisco in cakes as it gives me terrible heartburn. Terrible. On the other hand, it does tend to limit how much I'm able to consume. Silver lining, people-I keep telling you to look for the silver lining. Anyway, I'm sure you could make a better apple kuchen, but I'll post this just for regional interest.

You Will need:

1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
Dash of lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1 cup Plain flour
Dash of nutmeg (my addition)
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

2 apples, pared and sliced thin
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I omitted this)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch cake pan. If I were to do this again, I'd flour it as well-the cake stuck horribly.

Cream the shortening and sugar until light. Beat in egg mixing well. Stir in lemon juice. Sift dry ingredients together. Add vanilla to milk. Add, alternating. Do not over-mix. Pour into prepared pan. Arrange apple slices on top. Dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 25 (their suggestion) to 45 (my reality) minutes. Cool in pan on a rack.