Ohhhhh Fall baking!

There’s something just so cozy about Fall baking…apples, cinnamon, pumpkin…sigh.  It’s this Fall baking that makes a house (or in my case, an apartment), smell like a home!  (Cue, cheeeeez)!  Anyways, living in a small apartment with limited space and limited funds doesn’t stop me from enjoying some delightful seasonal treats, especially when my mom hooks me up with some home-grown apples!

And the search for an appropriate and doable recipe began.  If you recall, I have some pretty strict criteria for recipes I choose to prepare.  Now of course, this recipe isn’t required to involve corn and potatoes.  That would be weird.  So hows abouts we sub the corn and potatoes for apples and cinnamon?  Mmmmmkay?  Mmmmkay.

Betty Crocker came to my rescue yet again with her delightful (and doable and inexpensive) sounding Apple-Cinnamon cake.  Thinking back to my criteria, the recipe DEFINITELY sounded good, it involved apples and cinnamon, and with only 5 (FIVE!!) ingredients (4 of which I had in my cupboard), it would be quite affordable.  Score!  So I picked up the one and only ingredient I needed and set to work.

Now, I stuck pretty close to the recipe this time, with one major exception.  The recipe calls for canned apple pie filling, but I can SO do better than that.  So I made my own!  I followed the Mini Apple Crumble recipe for the filling.

Here are my lovely, home-grown apples, courtesy of my mom and dad!

I cooked up the apple pie filling, then let it cool for a bit before moving on with the rest of the recipe.  Good thing the filling had a disguise in it’s future, ’cause boiling it too hot makes it look a little bit funny and bubbly…so don’t boil it too hot!!  🙂

If we call apples ingredient #1, then here are ingredients #2-#5!  We have cinnamon, eggs, brown sugar and a spice cake mix.  Easy as pie!  …or cake…

Gooey, cinammon-y apple pie filling and eggs are mixed with the oh-so-simple spice cake mix.  Just a warning: it smells REALLY good.  And I think it’s okay to sample the batter…but don’t tell my mom I ate raw eggs! 😉

After the batter is all mixed up (and the beaters are safely put in the sink to remove temptation), simply pour half the mixture into a cake pan.

The reason you’re pouring only half of the batter into the pan right now is because you’ve got some cinnamon-sugar mixture to layer in there!  Just sprinkle about half of it on, then evenly pour in the rest of the batter.

And here’s the lovely cake all ready to go in the oven!  Go ahead and top the cake with the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.

If all goes well, you ought to have something resembling this!  Doesn’t it just look tasty?  And let me tell you about the smell…heavenly!  Seriously, it smelled like the quintessential grandma’s kitchen!

And look at those little clumps of sugary goodness…I had to restrain myself from just picking them off……

How cute!  The spice was perfect, and the amount of apples was just right.  Warm apple-cinnamon cake just can’t be beat!  Serve it up with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, or if you want to be like me, a glass of vanilla soy milk pairs quite nicely 🙂

Apple Cinnamon Cake

Adapted from Betty Crocker

The Goods

1 box spice cake mix

1 recipe apple pie filling (click for the link!), about 21 oz

3 eggs

3 tbsp brown sugar

desired amount of cinnamon (about 1 tsp)

The Plan

1. Heat oven to 350*; grease the bottom only of a 13×9 pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, pie filling and eggs with a mixer on low for 2 minutes.  The batter will be thick.

3. Spread half of the batter in the pan; mix the sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle half of the mix over the batter in the pan.

4. Evenly spread the remaining batter in the pan, then sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar mix.

4. Bake 32-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool a bit, serve with whipped topping, ice cream or milk.

Well folks, I’m off to enjoy  the rest of my Sunday by watching Chopped and reading while sipping hot coco doing homework.  Hooray for college! 🙂  When I feel bogged down in homework and school shtuff, I read the verses taped to my wall and often linger on this one:

I am still confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong, take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14

Take it for what you will 🙂

Have a blessed week!

Beth