Recipe : Mortgage Apple Cake

Last time I was in Detroit airport (DTW) they were giving away New York Times newspapers and I grabbed one.  The NYT is a wee bit highbrow for this little chicken, but they have some good articles, and I read one about a lady who was about to lose her house and decided she'd try and save it by baking and selling cakes.  She invented the Mortgage Apple Cake.  Her mortgage fight got a lot of interest, and not only did she save her house, she's now in business selling her cakes  (US$40 each!!!!).  You can check out her story HERE.

Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at creating a Mortgage Apple Cake, and I mooshed a few apple cake recipes together to come up with this.  It's dead easy and the bit that takes the longest is the peeling and dicing of the apples.  The cake itself was scrumptious and got inhaled by the crowd, so I didn't get a chance to get a photo of the end product (duh), but I'm going to cook it again soon and I'll post a photo.  Basically, it's a great apple cake with the apple dices spread evenly through the slices (I was a bit worried they'd all sink to the bottom, but NO!).  Let's get cooking!

Kristy's Mortgage Apple Cake

• 4 cups peeled and diced cooking apples (about 8 medium sized apples)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• Half cup olive oil
• 1 cup chopped nuts (not peanuts, I used almonds, but pecans or walnuts would work too)
• 2 eggs, room temperature, well beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour (plain, not self raising)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 350f (180c)
2. Grease 13x9 inch pan (or whatever you've got, I used a round spring form lined with paper on the bottom and that squirty butter stuff on the sides)
3. Mix apples and sugar thoroughly
4. Add oil, nuts, eggs and vanilla
5. Mix dry ingredients together
6. Add dry ingredients to apple and sugar mixture
7. Stir it all together, it might look a bit thick, but that's okay
8. Cook for one hour on middle rack
9. My oven is old and dodgy and it took more like one hour and twenty minutes, just keep an eye on it

You don't have to frost it, but seriously, isn't everything better with frosting?  This frosting is scrumptious and very easy.

Sour Cream Frosting

• 4 tablespoons of softened butter
• Half cup sour cream
• Half teaspoon vanilla extract
• Half teaspoon lemon juice
• Quarter teaspoon salt
• 2 and three quarter cups of icing sugar (confectioners sugar)

1. Whack it all in a bowl and mix together - by hand if you've got upper arm strength, or using an electric mixer if you're a bit of a wuss like me
2. Frost!

Forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but remembered to take a photo of the mess.  Yes, that's how I roll.  Sigh.