An Ode to Alice

Alice is my mom.

I think I’ve shown you this pic before…That’s her with my Aunt Mabel…the one famous for apple dumplings, donuts, and tiny dishes of macaroni and cheese.

Mom is the one with the awesome flip.

In our town, the only thing that makes you famous is putting a recipe in the community cookbooks.

And our town takes the community cookbook art very seriously.

They’re made for churches.  For fundraisers.  For families.  For restaurants.  For clubs.  I have tons of these cookbooks.

And my mom and grandma were always the first to submit recipes.

My mom’s repertoire is small – she always puts in Broccoli Casserole, Beef Stroganoff, and Apple Cake.

I have 10 cookbooks with those recipes in them.  “Submitted by Alice”.

Here’s what’s funny…She has never ONCE made beef stroganoff.  At least, not for me.  Her only daughter.

But the broccoli casserole…that is sometimes my birthday cake.  In my personal heaven, the angels will be serving unlimited plates of broccoli casserole and I will never gain a pound.  Or get too full to eat it.

And of course…the apple cake.

Every fall, this recipe would come out and we would eat apple cake every day for weeks.

So, I took this apple cake recipe…

“Alice’s Best Fresh Apple Cake”  That sort of implies that there are more, less awesome apple cake recipes.

There’s not.  Just this one.

2 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, 4 cups apples (peeled, cored, diced)

Chigity-Chigity-Check out my eggs…They’re from an ombre chicken.I get my eggs from hipster chickens.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and spices…

In another bowl, cream the eggs, sugar and vanilla…Then combine the wet and dry ingredients…Alice says, “Batter will be very stiff.”

She ain’t a-kiddin…

I moved this to the big mixer and added the apples to get it to look like this:Which seems a bit more cake-like.

Now, you can put this in a 9×13 pan and bake it at 325 for an hour, just like Alice says on the recipe.

Or, you can put it in two 8″ round cake pans and make a loverly layer cake.

Or, you can make cupcakes.

My friend Jeana and I were discussing cupcakes one day, and she said this:  “No one understands the importance of the mini cupcake.  There’s a much better cake-frosting ratio.”

Plus their little.  Little = Cuter.

So, mini cupcake pan and little scoop.

You definitely want the liners.  Trust me.  Liners.

Bake at 350 – mine took about 20 minutes.  Watch them, they’ll bake quickly.

Let’s make the frosting.

1 cup shortening.  You can use butter or margarine…whatever is available.

Add 1/2 cup water and mix until creamy, then add 1 2lb bag of powdered sugar.Now the secret ingredient…Unfortunately, this is the only stuff that will give it the maple flavor.  I tried to make it with real maple syrup, and it just tasted like vanilla.  Use this stuff.

It’s non-alcoholic, in case you were worried.

Add 1 tsp.  Add 2 tsp.  Add a tablespoon.  Whatever floats your maple boat.

Mini cupcakes are done…Overflow!  That’s okay.  We have the digger-outer spoon.This poor spoon got into a fight with the mixer.  I believe the mixer won.

But it has become a nice shape to dig the mini cupcakes out of the pan.  So happy accident.

Dig them out.

Let them cool.

And pipe on the maple frosting…

Oh, a few pecans never hurt anyone, right?Shut.  The front.  Door.
How amazing is that?I think even my husband will eat this.

Perfect for fall.

Alice’s Best Fresh Apple Cake with Maple Frosting

Adapted from the recipe files of Alice Sherwood

For the cake:

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp clove

4 cups apples, peeled, cored and diced

Preheat oven to 350

Cream eggs and sugar, add vanilla.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, soda and spices. Add the creamed mixture to the flour mixture, batter will be stiff.  Add the apples and pour into greased 9×13 pan, or 2 greased 8″ cake pans, or lined cupcake tins.  Bake for 20-45 minutes (depending on size of pan).  Allow to cool.

For the frosting

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup water

1 – 2lb bag powdered sugar

Maple flavoring to taste.

Cream shortening, add water.  Slowly add powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.  Add maple flavoring and frost cooled cake.