Apples and Honey Cake – for a sweet new year

(Anita and I are switching posts this week so I can share this recipe for Rosh Hashanah)

There’s nothing quite like the holidays to make you miss your family.

Growing up, Rosh Hashanah meant not only a day off school, but a day spent with family. You wake up early. Put on your “nice” clothes. Spend the first few hours of the day in services (during which I lose focus on what the rabbi is saying and undoubtedly start braiding the fringe on my dad’s tallit). Finally you head home and spend the day goofing off with your siblings while mom and dad put together a delicious dinner. During dinner you talk about the things you are grateful for and what kind of mitzvah’s you want to accomplish over the next year. In many ways, it’s the perfect kind of day – one filled with family and lots of good food.

That’s not really how things work out while you’re away at school. Thankfully I almost always have a friend’s house I can visit for Rosh Hashanah dinner, but other than that, it feels like a holiday that I celebrate half hazardly. I do my best to make it to services, but I somehow end up going to a different synagogue every year. I try not to work, but quite honestly, it’s hard to take a day off from school when you’ve got tests, projects, and abstract deadlines coming up (in fact, I have an abstract due this Friday). One thing I do always manage to do is contemplate the last year and how I will try to improve myself for this year. More importantly, I think about what I’m grateful for – my family, my friends and my health. What more can I really ask for?

L’shana tova umetukah – For a good and sweet (and healthy, and productive, and fruitful, and…you get my point) year.

(Adapted from a combination of this Apple Cake recipe and this Honey Cake recipe)

What you need:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup vegetable oil (I want to try subbing in applesauce for the oil, but didn’t have any applesauce)
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 3/4 cup honey
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 apples, cored and thinly sliced
• 2 tsp cinnamon (1 tsp for batter and 1 tsp for apples)
• 2 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup orange juice

What you need to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Core and slice your apples into thin pieces.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1 tsp of cinnamon.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together your eggs, oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and orange juice.
5. Add the liquids to the bowl with the flour and stir until everything is combined.
6. In a greased 9X9 in baking pan, pour in about 1/3 of the batter then make an even layer of apple slices. Pour in the next third of batter. Make your next layer of apple slices. Top off with the last of the batter, but before adding you apple layer, sprinkle the apple slices with the remaining tsp of cinnamon. Finally, add your last layer of apples.
7. Bake for about 1.5 to 2 hours (use a toothpick test to see if the cake is cooked all the way through). If you’re making a half batch, you only need to cook for 1 to 1.5 hours.

Print This BA Recipe