By Week 446. Fall 2024. I am 41 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like cinnamon and falling leaves and this is my life. This is the life I built.
The clinic was busy this week — spring puppies and summer emergencies and the constant, comforting cycle of animals who need care and humans who love them enough to bring them in.
Mason is 13 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.
Lily is 11 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.
I made caramel apples this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.
Caramel apples were the spark — the smell of them, the season of them — and once the kitchen was already warm and smelling like fall, I couldn’t stop there. This French Apple Cake came next, almost inevitably, the way one good thing tends to lead to another when you’re finally paying attention to your own life. It’s the kind of cake that doesn’t ask much of you and gives back more than you expect — which, honestly, is exactly the kind of thing I have room for at 41.
French Apple Cake
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 3 large apples (such as Honeycrisp or Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon rum or apple cider (optional)
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, milk, vanilla extract, and rum or apple cider if using.
- Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until a thick, smooth batter forms. Do not overmix.
- Fold in the apples. Add the apple chunks and fold them into the batter — the batter will be thick and the apples will seem like a lot. That’s exactly right.
- Fill and top. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar over the top for a lightly crisp, golden finish.
- Bake. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until the top is deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake will be dense and custardy around the apples — that’s the French style.
- Cool and serve. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Dust generously with powdered sugar before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 46g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 160mg