Date-Nut Apple Cake -- What Gets Made at the Second Summer’s Table

The second summer without Babcia Rose. The first summer was the summer she died — July 22nd, the golabki on the stove, the notebook in the drawer — and this summer is different in the way that seconds are different from firsts: less acute, the grief settled into the structure of things rather than breaking through the surface. I still reach for her sometimes. I still think: I should tell Babcia Rose this. And then I remember, and the remembering is familiar now, not new, and I hold it for a moment and move on.

Dziadek Wally is ninety-five and he came to Sunday dinner again this week. He is slowing. His daughter says he is well, all things considered, considering. He held Nora on his lap for twenty minutes and told her something in Polish and she sat still for the whole thing, the way she always has with him, the way she always had with Babcia Rose. Whatever she understands, she understands that some things are worth being still for.

I made the beet salad from the notebook, my eighth or ninth batch, and it is mine now, not hers, not mine-trying-to-be-hers but actually mine: the proportions I have adjusted to my taste, the technique I have modified slightly, the version of the recipe that has passed through my hands enough times to become something I make rather than something I copy. This is what happened with the mushroom soup. This is what will happen with everything in the notebook eventually. The recipes are not hers anymore. They are the family's.

I got the acceptance email on Thursday. Concordia M.S. in Special Education, beginning August 2025. I start in four weeks. I read the email three times and then called Patty and she said "of course they accepted you" without any pause, with the absolute certainty of someone who has been waiting for the obvious outcome to be confirmed. I called Ryan at the station and he said "told you." That was everyone's reaction: of course. Obviously. Yes. It is good to be known.

After the beet salad was finished and cleared and Dziadek Wally had held Nora on his lap through the whole slow afternoon, I wanted something for the table that felt like the notebook without being from it — something I could make in my own hand, in my own summer, as a kind of extension of what Babcia Rose started. This Date-Nut Apple Cake has that quality: dense and warm and unhurried, the kind of thing that says Sunday dinner is not over yet, stay a little longer.

Date-Nut Apple Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 50 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 cup pitted dates, roughly chopped
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups peeled, cored, and diced apple (about 2 medium apples)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
2. Soak the dates. Place chopped dates in a small bowl. Sprinkle baking soda over them, then pour the boiling water on top. Stir briefly and let sit for 10 minutes to soften. Do not drain.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.
5. Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
6. Bring the batter together. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in two additions, alternating with the date mixture (including all its soaking liquid). Stir until just combined — do not overmix.
7. Fold in apples and nuts. Gently fold in the diced apples and chopped nuts with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed.
8. Bake. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 45–50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
9. Cool before serving. Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature, plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 318 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 49g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 185mg