Since I haven’t shared a baked-goods recipe with you all for awhile, I decided to devote this week’s recipe post to a sweet snack. And this one comes, not from a magazine or cookbook, but from my very own recipe box!
Well, ok, from my mom’s recipe box, where I coped this down from. Don’t worry, I got her permission to share this one with you. Mom’s Apple Snacking Cake.
In New England, where I grew up, autumn looks like this.
Yeah. And we celebrate fall like nobody’s business — state fairs, haunted hay rides, pine needle houses (this is where there are so many pine needles in your front yard, that when tasked with helping your father rake the leaves, you have to learn how to separate out the sticky needles, and you and your sisters shape them into the outlines of houses to play in. Multi-room pine needle mansions, complete with pine needle beds to lay on).
One of my family’s most treasured fall rituals is apple picking. Now plenty of people will hit up a U-Pick orchard in fall, but there were seven of us, which meant we left with BUSHELS of apples of five or six varieties, and had to come up with a lot of things to do with them.
(Note: I definitely did not ask my little sister’s permission to use an old photo of her wearing braces in this post. File under hazards of knowing a nonfiction writer. Love you, Caitlin!)
We’d have apple crisp, of course. My parents would invite their friends over for cider-pressing parties. My mother has developed an epic applesauce factory. But my favorite treat was always apple snacking cake.
We call it “snacking cake” because it serves many purposes: you can eat this sweet but fruited cake for breakfast, an after-school snack, or for dessert. Versatile and delicious.
It’s not burdened with the syrupy-sweetness of a caramel apple, but neither is it overly tart. The apples melt away into the cake, leaving it incredibly moist, even after weeks in the refrigerator or freezer. The best part is the secret ingredient — rice krispies! — leave these little crystallized pockets of chewiness in the cake without adding too much sweetness.
Here’s the recipe…
Mom’s Apple Snacking Cake
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 c. oil
- 2 c. rice krispies
- 2 c. apples, peeled and sliced not too thin
- 1 3/4 c. sugar
- 2 c. flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat the eggs with an electric mixer. Add sugar and continue to beat until fluffy.
- Add flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt, and mix.
- Add oil, vanilla and apples, stirring gently.
- Fold in rice krispies
- Pour batter into a 13 x 9 – inch pan (glass, ceramic or aluminum will do, but I prefer glass) coated with cooking spray.
- Bake 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Enjoy with tea, milk or fresh whipped cream. Cake will keep in freezer.
MARISSA LANDRIGAN 