Apple Cake and a Word About Flour

If I’m going to follow all of these Eat Local rules, then I have some rules of my own for this apple cake.  First, you must use a cast iron pan.  Preferably one that has spent a large portion of its life span getting cozy with bacon fat.  If you don’t have one, you must get one now.  Quickly, before the market gets any worse.  They’re cheap.  Just heavy.  Then you must cook 200 lbs. of local bacon to properly season it.  (Hey, I didn’t make the rules.  Or did I?)

Actually, those are my only requirements for this cake, besides eating it slowly, which is impossible.  Some rules are meant to be broken.  (Except the cast iron one.)

But first, a word about flour.  I found a local source for whole wheat flour last year: Wood Prairie Farm in Maine (they also have rye flour and oats).  Yes, I know that having stuff like that shipped to me isn’t exactly sustainable from a fuel- consumption standpoint, but maybe if there’s enough demand, people will start growing grain again in Massachusetts.  Not on a Midwestern scale, but on a community-supported scale.  It’s been known to happen.

It should be noted, however, that, in addition to local grains, I’m also allowing myself to use King Arthur all-purpose flour in equal parts when I see fit.  King Arthur grain comes mostly from the Midwest, but they are an employee-owned, Vermont company that originated in Boston in 1790.  They’ve got history and they make really good flour.  This, too, falls under the umbrella of “I value their craft.”  (BTW, I also value the craft of the baking powder and baking soda people, so add those to my growing list of exemptions, too.)

This cake may not be the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen, but few apple cakes are.  They’re rustic.  This one has a large, soft crumb, and all these buttery, nutty, mapley notes that make it pretty irresistible.  When I made it yesterday, though, the cake wasn’t tall enough due to the size of the pan I was using, so I doubled the amount of cake batter in the recipe.  I HAVE NOT RETESTED THE RECIPE SINCE.  I don’t have time.  I’m, like, barely holding things together as it is.  The recipe should work, by my calculations.  I’m like 99% sure, but I will not accept hate mail on this particular point since I’ve already issued a warning. 

So, who’s going to be the guinea pig?  If anyone does my recipe-testing for me, I’ll link to your blog in return.

Apple and Maple Brown Butter Upside-Down Cake

If you’re not eating locally, you can still make this with regular brown sugar and apples from China.

Topping
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup maple sugar
3-4 tart apples, peeled, cored, cut into ¼-inch slices

Batter
2/3 cup unsalted butter
2 cups maple sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup apple cider
1-1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. fresh grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a 12-inch cast iron skillet, melt butter.  Heat for 3-4 minutes, gently tipping pan back and forth, until butter turns a medium shade of amber.  It’s hard to tell against the jet-black metal, but just make a call before it burns.  Remove pan from heat and stir in maple sugar.  Spread evenly on bottom of pan.  Arrange apple slices on top.  Don’t burn yourself.  Go on, try it.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, milk, and cider, and mix well.  Add dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.  Pour batter on top of apples.  Bake 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool a bit and then loosen edges and bottom carefully with a spatula.  Invert a plate on top of the skillet and carefully flip.  It’s really freaking heavy.  You will have some words for me.  Cake should come loose onto the plate, apple side up.  Serve warm.  Vanilla ice cream never hurts.

Sources:
Apples: Autumn Hills Orchard, Groton, MA
Butter: Cabot, Montpelier, VT (Russo’s)
Maple sugar: Warren Farm and Sugar House, North Brookfield, MA (Waltham Farmer’s Market)
Eggs: Chip-In Farm, Bedford, MA (Russo’s)
Milk: Our Family Farms of Western Massachusetts, Bernardston, MA (Russo’s)
Apple cider: Allen’s Cider Mill, West Brookfield, MA (Waltham Farmer’s Market)
Whole wheat flour: Wood Prairie Farm, Bridgewater, ME (mail order)

Comments

[Sally]

I had a partial bottle of Amaretto that I've been storing for the last 20 yrs. so I decided to make an Amaretto cake yesterday. Hoooo doggie - is that good! I was just thinking a little Amaretto in this cake of yours might just be a good addition.

[Alecto]

Oh, thank you! I've just received a 300 pound shipment of flour from Iowa, I believe, and the guilt has just been incredible (except I suspect that may still be better than buying from Whole Foods). In any event, I certainly don't care to do it again. Having invested in the storage facilities to keep it all fresh(ish) I'm happy to have a significantly localer (good word, eh?) source.

[monica]

Reading the recipe - the milk part - made me write to put in a plug for Crescent Ridge Dairy. you must know if it already, but just in case - Located in Sharon - they have wonderful milk (not quite organic, but hormone free and all). Local - and they deliver to your door. They will even put the damn milk (and a fairly large variety of other groceries that they stock, including pasta from Capones in Somerville) right in your fridge/freezer if you give them a key. Plus- the glass bottles are really great!

[Leah]

Call me a heathen, but I don't have a cast iron pan, or (and this is the really sad part) access to 200 lbs of bacon to season one. Think it'd work in a regular old cake pan?

[Melissa]

I buy King Arthur too.

I won't be the guinea pig here though since I am no baker (yet).

I do, however, have a cast iron skillet. The crap part is I never cook with it. I have this aversion to working at it - using it, treating it, taking care of it - to get it to where it needs to be as a tool. I know. I need help.

[Tammy]

Melissa: That's normal. You have to ease into your relationship with a cast iron skillet. Start small, like with bacon on the weekends. Then move onto bacon on the weekdays. Then you can move onto other foods in which bacon is an important component. Pretty soon you'll be baking cornbread in there, and then you'll know you have a serious commitment.

Leah: It will work, I'll grudgingly admit. How well it works, though, you'll have to tell me!

monica: Yes, Crescent Ridge is great. We used them all last summer. Loved the glass bottles and the milk itself. However, I still ended up going to the grocery store the same amount, where I can also get local milk, which is why we didn't continue the service.

Alecto: I don't think there's any need to feel guilty about buying flour from the Midwest. It grows well there. But it would be nice to also grow some here, too, so that if something happens in the Midwest, we're not all screwed.

Sally: OMG, amaretto would be amazing in this cake! Why are you trying to hurt me?

[pyewacket]

Happy birthday! Is this your birthday cake?

[Melissa]

I was totally looking for encouragement there Tammy, so thanks. ;)

[Jeena]

This is currently baking in my oven, and my friends are waiting with enough excitement to give me performance anxiety!

The only question I have is --even overlapping slightly as in your picture, I didn't end up using very much of my four apples... Did I do right by keeping them mostly in a single layer or should I have stacked them up double-decker-like, too?

Also, there is no way I'm going to be able to flip that cast iron pan, so this is going to be very hilarious.

[Tammy]

Jeena: I'm dying to know how it came out? You didn't drop the cast iron pan on your big toe, did you? As for the apples, I only used one layer, though you could have certainly used two. My apples were on the small side and, come to think of it, I may have only used 3.

Melissa: That's what I'm here for.

pyewacket: Thanks! No, a picture of my birthday cake is forthcoming, though.

[Sophie]

I try to use local ingredients when I can, but I never thought about purchasing anything but produce locally, for some reason :). This cake sounds perfect, I love the maple sugar addition! We would love to feature your recipe on our blog and the first and only digital recipe reader. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if you're interested. Thanks!

[Melissa]

I had to come back here one last time to tell you - I told Steve your advice about the skillet, how you said to just continuously cook bacon in it. He said "I like Tammy. She's awesome." LOL. I don't make enough bacon, honestly. ;)

[Janet]

I was all set to make a different apple cake recipe (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/) . You said "bacon" a lot, though, so you won, hands-down. You also gave me an excuse to use my recently rehabilitated skillet. To be sure it was ready for use again, I sauteed some leftover potatoes with a little leftover bacon grease. Bacon, bacon, bacon!

My skillet is only 7", something I was glad to notice before starting, so I couldn't re-test your new proportions. Worked fine with a half-batch. I didn't have maple sugar, so I added a shot of maple syrup to the sauce.

A shiny stainless steel spatula makes it easy to see the butter brown. I can use the shiny spatula because the skillet isn't one of my namby-pamby delicate coated pans that's only allowed plastic. Nosir! This is real cookware. If I had a gas stove, my world would be complete.

Does Russo's carry maple sugar? Is it something you'd choose to eat outside of Eat Local month?

Thanks for another keeper.

[Renee]

Thanks for this recipe. It was super quick and easy, and turned out nice and tasty. Note: I used a combination of white sugar and grade B maple syrup instead of maple sugar, and it worked well. I made fresh whipped cream, too, and it a delicious pairing. My friends all loved it. Thanks!