Apple Cake

Ever bake a cake with ONE CUP of vegetable oil?!?! Ever poured and seen ONE CUP vegetable oil?!!!

 Eeeeeek I just did.

Apple cake,... Jewish Apple Cake,... German Apple Cake... honestly, I do not know the difference. Online recipe seems elusive too. And I couldn't care less. I desperately needed to bake a new cake for the Reunion Dinner at my in-laws, and wanted to bake something fruity. Most of all, I had this bag of apples sitting in my fridge, wasting space.

I saw the ingredients and I gasped. ONE CUP vegetable oil!... I tried to cut down... I searched to replace with butter, then I realised actually, one cup vegetable oil is equivalent to one 225gm butter! Good grief, what's the difference, right?

Then I saw the sugar... TWO CUPS!!!!

That is where I got stuck. I sat on the recipe for a week; hoping to find a better alternative.

Non came. So I baked this... and I cut down the sugar to ONE cup! Rather daring I think... but lo' and behold, it turned out GREAT! Nothing was compromised.

So this is it... I love it... I like it warm. Man says it tasted like bread. Boys were too busy playing and jumping, they didn't get to eat it. Sighz...


Here's what you'd need:

6 apples (I used red Royal Gala apples; peeled, cored and cut to chunks)
1tbsp cinnamon
5tbsp sugar

2 3/4cup plain flour, sifted
1tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1cup vegetable oil (eeeek but yes, this is correct)
2cups sugar (double eeekkk, I used only 1 cup)
1/4cup orange juice (I used apple juice)
2 1/2tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs


This is what I did:

1. Preheat oven to 175degC. G-e-n-e-r-o-u-s-l-y grease a bundt pan with butter and dust it loosely with caster sugar. Shake away the excess sugar. (Very Important step! I used a 10inch bundt pan)

2. In a big bowl, mix the apples with cinnamon and sugar. Ensure all chunks of apples are coated. Set aside while you prepare the batter.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, apple juice and vanilla essence.

4. Whisk wet ingredients into the dry ones, and add in egg one at a time.

5. In 2 batches, mix in the apples into batter. (There will be juice released from the apples. I discard them.)

6. Pour apple batter into the prepared bundt pan. Shake and give it a slight knock to level batter. Bake for 1 1/2hr till the toothpick comes out c-l-e-a-n. (I had to tent it at the end of the baking cycle to avoid burning my cake).

7. Let the cake cool in the pan to set it for about 30-45mins. Do not invert it immediately.

8. Invert on a wire rack. Now cross your fingers till tangled; say a quick prayer and slowly, steadily lift pan up. (I swear I held my breath real long. Ooh la la... Phew!... PERFECT!! Hurray!!!!)

9. Dust it with icing sugar. Slice and serve warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (as you wish).