Fall Food

I love fall food and flavors! Pumpkin, apples, cinnamon and nutmeg, sweet potatoes, chili, soups! With this new found fascination with cooking, I can't wait delve into all the fall goodness. This week for a Relief Society activity I signed up to bring a dessert. My mind instantly settled on making something using fall flavors. I ended up making my mom's Fresh Apple Cake. Before I put it in the oven I tasted the batter.....I probably could have had the whole cake raw, it was so good. But I just settled for licking the beaters, wooden spoon, rubber scraper, and bowl clean. Now I know why I don't bake very often.

The cake was a huge hit with several people in Relief Society, so I decided to share the recipe with all you, too. If you're looking for a warm, fresh, and indulgent fall time treat. Look no further, this is it!

Fresh Apple Cake

CAKE:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp. soda

3 tsp. cinnamon

1-1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

1 cup chopped pecans

4 cups finely chopped apples

SAUCE:

1/2 cup half and half

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp. real vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream together 2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup butter; add beaten eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and add to batter. Add apples and nuts. Bake in a greased bundt pan for 1 hour (350 degrees for 15 minutes; 300 degrees for 45 minutes) Cool cake in pan for a half-hour or so before turning out of the pan, or only part of the cake will come out. Serve warm with sauce.

SAUCE: Cook half and half, sugar and butter in heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture coats spoon. It takes a while (like 30+ minutes). Remove from heat, add vanilla. Serve warm over cake. Side note: I added half the vanilla because the vanilla I have is really strong and I didn't want it over power the sauce. I would suggest adding half, then tasting it before you add the rest.