This was
Apfelkuchen, German apple cake.
Apples are in season! We bought four fresh apples at our favorite local farm stand. I didn't know what kind of apple they were. I just hoped they were good for cooking because I was going to make an apple cake.
I had two recipes of
Apfelkuchen. One came from my German baking book written in Japanese. The recipe said it was the very basic apple cake that every German grandmother bakes. The recipe was simple - the basic pound cake made with flour, egg, butter and sugar. The
other was by smitten kitchen. It was called sunken apple and honey cake, or
Versunkener Apfelkuchen. It called for honey. I liked the idea of matching honey with apples. I followed the smitten kitchen's recipe with adjustment of sugar level. The recipe used not only honey but also granulated sugar for the batter. I skipped all granulated sugar.
Cutting apples like "lace" seems like a special feature of
Apfelkuchen. I think it's adorable. Perhaps my apples were a little larger than the recipe (tiny-to-small). They didn't fully sink into the cake, but looked lovely, didn't it?
When I made honey glaze, I added a few splashes of
German apple pear brandy in the graze! The cake looked glossy and smelled wonderful!
Of course, whipped cream on side!
The result was fine. My apples were after all a type good for cooking. They beautifully held the shape after baking. Actually they gave a really good bite. The cake part was light but somewhat dry because I guess I reduced a lot of sugar. However, whipped cream solved the problem.
Over all I enjoyed my first German apple cake. Would my cake be approved by a community of German grandmothers? I hope so!
