Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Illustration By Raichel link

Fall recipe: Spiced Apple Cider Cake

By Katie morris

mcmobley@vwc.edu

Autumn is here, which means that several other occasions are moving up on the calendar. Halloween is at the end of this month, and then next month is Thanksgiving. For my family, it means we get to cook. The Morris clan never misses a chance to break out the cook books or pullout beloved family recipes. My family was, to put it mildly, didn t go well. So here s one of my original recipes.

There is one thing about the cake that s pretty tricky and, incidentally, also made it maddeningly difficult to actually write down. I come from a mixture of cooking traditions in my family, such as Pennsylvania Dutch, which is actually a German culture. Being German, you d think we d be all about strict, clear measurements. Actually, our motto is,  A pinch of this, a dollop of that. So, consequently, a lot of this recipe is guess work and just throwing things in. Thus, a lot of this is going to be at your own discretion.

Cake Ingredients: One box of white cake mix, apple cider or juice, four, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, honey, ground cloves, cardamom, lemon rind

Cake directions:

Follow the directions on the back of your cake mix. Grease, flower or spray your pan. First, mix the white cake batter as your base, and so that you know how thick the end result should be. When mixing the cake, put in a fraction of the water called for by the recipe. Use apple juice/cider for the rest of the measurement. Do this to your taste.

Now is where you get to get creative. Mix in about another cup or so of apple cider/juice. The batter will get very runny, but don t panic. Mix in all the spices as you want them. My only advice would be go easy on the ground cloves. Add about a tsp of baking soda and maybe ¼ c. flower to thicken up your batter to baking density. Continue to improvise and with spices, flour, and cider until it s where you want it for taste and thickness. Be careful not to add too much flour or baking soda.

Then, put it in the oven. It usually takes about 45 min. to bake.