WEDNESDAY WITH MARLENA SPIELER

First off I am thrilled to say I've finally met Marlena!! She is sweet, down to earth and a lot of fun. The story of our meeting is a story for another blog.
Today I am featuring POLISH APPLE CAKE.
This is a moist dense cake layered with apples that I adapted from Marlena's recipe that she based on a recipe from an old Polish lady in a California Lubavitcher community.

POLISH APPLE CAKE

31/4C self-rising flour
3-4 large apples
2tsp ground cinnamon
21/2C super fine sugar ( I used regular granulated sugar and it was fine)
4 eggs lightly beaten
1C vegetable oil
1/2 C orange juice
2tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
grease a 9X13 pan, dust with flour

Core (do not peel) and thinly slice the apples.
Put the apple slices in a bowl and mix the cinnamon and 5Tbs of the sugar.. toss to coat the apple slices. Set aside.
In bowl beat together the eggs, remaining sugar,vegetable oil, orange juice, and vanilla until well combined. Sift together the remaining flour and salt and stir it into the wet mixture.
Pour two-thirds of the cake mixture into the prepared pan, top with about 1/3 of the apple slices. Pour the remaining cake batter over the apple slices and top with the remaining apples. Any of the juices left in the bowl, pour over the apples.

Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the pan to allow the juices to soak in. Serve while warm or at room
temperature.

note: Using orange juice instead of milk is typical of Jewish baking as it allow the cake to be eaten with both meat and dairy products in keeping with the Kosher laws.

Be sure to go to Mel and Shankari's blog for their Wednesday with Marlena recipes.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!