Potluck German Apple Cake

October 2020. I turned twenty-two this week. October third. Twenty-two years old. I am at the table I was at for my nineteenth and twentieth and twenty-first birthdays, in the kitchen that is mine more than almost anywhere has ever been mine, with Gloria making banana pudding and James in the collared shirt again.

He is seventy-two now, James, and he moves at his own pace and that pace is slower than it was when I met him at fourteen but he is exactly the person he has always been. He told me at the birthday table a story about his own twenty-second birthday in 1970 and what that year was like and what the world looked like then and I listened to the whole thing and thought: I get to have this. I get to sit at a table with someone seventy-two years old who tells me what 1970 felt like. That is not nothing. That is an enormous privilege.

I interviewed for the fellowship last week by video. It went well, I think. Better than well. I felt prepared in the way you feel prepared when you have been working toward something for two years without fully admitting that is what you were doing. I talked about my research. I talked about Patience the little girl from the observational study. I talked about what I want to understand and why. I will hear in November.

Made my own birthday cake again: lemon layer cake this year, three layers, lemon curd between them, cream cheese frosting. It was technically the most complex cake I have made. It was also very good. James said: lemon. That is not what I would have chosen. I said: I know. He said: it is good though. Yes. It is.

I made lemon that year because lemon felt right—bright and a little sharp, like being twenty-two. But the cake I come back to when I want to bake for people I love, something that travels well and feeds a table, is this one: a dense, spiced German apple cake that I first brought to a potluck and never stopped making. James would probably approve of this one more than the lemon. It tastes like something someone’s grandmother made, which is its own kind of honor.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 16

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups peeled, cored, and diced apples (about 3 medium apples)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Powdered sugar for dusting, or cream cheese frosting (optional)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking pan or a 10-inch tube pan.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
Combine wet ingredients. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth and well combined, about 2 minutes.
Fold in dry ingredients. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until just combined—do not overmix.
Add apples and nuts. Fold in the diced apples and chopped nuts. The batter will be very thick; this is expected.
Bake. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
Cool and serve. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving, or frost with cream cheese frosting if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Potluck German Apple Cake — The Birthday Baker Keeps Showing Up