Apples In August (Photo in Gallery)

After spending a couple of days with my family at Lake Keowee, in South Carolina, I NEEDED to find a recipe with apples. There was this wild apple tree with so many big, beautiful apples. It was as if they were calling my name. My husband and daughter picked so many, that I needed to share them with my family. My cousin made her delicious homemade applesauce and I brought some home to use for baking. I have no idea what kind of apples they are, but they taste great—not too sweet—not too tart and not pithy. They are nice, firm apples and ready for a dessert. So here goes—this is my first time using a fruit that I didn’t buy in the grocery store. I’m so excited.
Here’s a common sense hint regarding baking and cooking.
Read the recipe 2-3 times before starting any recipe. Make sure you have all your ingredients. BECAUSE, after I got started mixing I did a “no-no”, but how many of us do? I didn’t read the recipe but once before I started mixing the ingredients. So I thought I had all of them----until I came to the brown sugar. The recipe called for light brown sugar and all I had was dark brown. I searched and searched to no avail. So I used dark brown instead, which is really just fine. The only difference between the two is the amount of molasses in the sugar. The darker one usually has more flavor than the light brown. This cake is delicious with either. Don’t go to the store if you’re out of the lighter brown sugar and only have the dark one. But try to make sure you have all ingredients before you start baking.
After baking this cake, I realized there were a few things I would do a little differently when mixing this recipe. But first know, that it will end up tasting delicious with whichever method you use. The first thing I would say is, you need to scrap the side and bottom of the bowl 2-3 times when creaming the butter and sugar. If you don’t, the mixture won’t mix thoroughly. Second is I would add the eggs, one at a time and mix thoroughly again after each egg. Also scrap the side and bottom of the bowl 2-3 times. I noticed that when I followed the directions in the book and added all the beaten eggs at one time, it didn’t look as if the mixture would combine properly. I did scrap the bowl and beat the mixture for about 5 minutes or so before it looked normal. At first I thought I would have to throw it away and start again. It just takes a while for all the eggs to combine together when added at one time. For that reason, add eggs, one at a time and mix thoroughly after each egg in the future. It just combines the mixture normally. In the end—this is a yummy cake. I dusted my cake with confectioners sugar instead of honey. It looked beautiful.