Apple-Spice Cake

My husband and I took advantage of Saturday’s lovely weather to go for a drive to an apple orchard. We picked about 20 pounds of apples — not as many as in the past, when we had kids at home to help pick and eat the apples, but still quite a lot.

On Sunday, I decided to make an  apple cake. I wanted it to be reasonably healthy but tasty. I looked through a pile of cookbooks and on the internet without finding quite what I wanted, so I experimented and came up with this.

I used a basic Jewish apple cake recipe, which is made with vegetable oil instead of shortening or butter. Instead of all-purpose, I subbed white whole-wheat flour, which is my go-to flour for everyday baking and cooking. I used organic sugar, which has a faint molasses flavor. If you use regular sugar, you could substitute brown sugar for about 1/4 cup. I also increased the cinnamon and added ginger. For good measure, I stirred in a bit of Dutch process cocoa powder to deepen the flavors and blend with the spices. Regular cocoa powder would work too.

Nuts would have been a nice finishing touch, but I didn’t have any on hand. If you’d like, stir together some chopped walnuts and pecans with a little brown sugar and sprinkle them over the batter before baking.

APPLE-SPICE CAKE

Yield: 16 servings

2 cups granulated sugar, divided
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
8 medium apples (I used Jonathan), peeled and sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 9-by-13-inch pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups sugar and oil. Whisk in eggs. Whisk in orange juice, water and vanilla.

Stir together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, ginger and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Add to egg mixture, whisking until smooth.

In another large bowl, toss apples with remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Spread half of batter in pan. Top evenly with apples. Spoon remaining batter over apples, smoothing batter into an even layer. (Some apples will show through.)

Bake until cake is crusty and set on top, about 50 minutes.