Warm Apple Cake

I made this cake on Thanksgiving and it was a real hit. Though the name of it is Warm Apple Cake, I served it room temperature. Keeping something warm while traveling and then eating a big turkey dinner is not an easy feat. I also hate reheating something that is supposed to be made warm. The taste just isn't the same. I once tried to reheat a pecan pie, and it ended up runny. It still tasted great, but the presentation just wasn't there.

So, while this cake wasn't served as intended, it was still delicious, and it really had staying power. We were eating it well into the next week. That's the thing about Thanksgiving meals. You're so full after the big meal, there's no room for all of those delicious desserts! I ended up eating only a small piece of this cake on Thanksgiving, as did the rest of my family. That left us with almost the whole cake leftover, which was fine with us! I will never turn down a delicious dessert that I can eat 3 or 4 more times after dinner every night.

Warm Apple Cake
taken from 101 Easy Entertaining Recipes, by Gooseberry Patch

Ingredients
1 c. all-purpose flour (I used half AP, half whole wheat)
1 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1 egg, beaten
2 c. apples, cored, peeled and grated
1/2 c. chopped walnuts, divided

Directions
Preheat over to 350 degrees Farenheit. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together egg, apples, and 1/4 cup nuts; add to flour mixture. Spread in a greased 8"x8" baking pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick tests clean. Top with remaining nuts and serve warm.

Servings: 9



Chef's Notes
The recipe in the book also recomended that the cake be topped with a caramel sauce. I didn't have the time or the means to make this on Thanksgiving morning, so I skipped it. It would probably taste great, though. Instead, we topped it with whipped cream and when I had it later in the week, I served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

When I first started to make this cake, I had some reservations. The batter seemed really sticky and wasn't really settling into the pan. I thought maybe I used too much flour, but after some shaking of the pan, the batter ended up covering it.

I used 4 fuji apples for this recipe and it was just sweet enough. I don't have a grater, so instead of grating the apples up, I chopped them into small pieces in my food processor. Having some chunks of apple in the cake was really a nice touch. I'm glad I didn't have the grater.

Cantaloupe Granita

Last week our local supermarket sent us some coupons in the mail. One of the coupons was for cantaloupe - 2 for $5. This is a pretty good price for cantaloupe, so I picked them up when I was grocery shopping. I went to cut them up this weekend and realized that there are only 2 of us in this house, and there is no way we'd eat all of this cantaloupe (I also bought 6 peaches) before it went bad. I ended up cubing one to eat for snacks this week, and I used the other one in a recipe I found for granita.

According to wikipedia, granita is a semi-frozen dessert of sugar, water and flavorings. It originated in the Sicily region of Italy. It is basically a cross between sorbet and italian ice. The most common flavorings are lemon, strawberry, almond and coffee. If you're interested in some other granita recipes, try this article I found at npr.org.

Cantaloupe Granita
Michael Chiarello, Food Network

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups superfine sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves
2 medium cantaloupes (about 4 pounds each) peeled and seeded, cut into 1-inch wedges
Pinch gray salt


Directions
Combine the sugar and water over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the mint. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool.



Puree the fruit in a food processor until liquefied. Pour the fruit into a medium bowl and add the salt. Remove the mint leaves from the syrup. Add the syrup to the pureed fruit and mix well.

Pour the cantaloupe mixture into a pre-chilled 7 by 12-inch glass baking dish. Place it uncovered into the freezer. Stir with a fork every 1/2 hour until almost completely frozen but still grainy, about 3 to 4 hours.