Raw Apple Cake - Maurine G.

When I first saw this cake, I assumed it would be a spice cake, but turns out it is a yellow cake of sorts, with shredded apples.  Consequently, I was curious.  The brown color of the cake comes from the apples that browned while I peeled, cored,  & shredded 6 cups of them.  I used a combination of Jazz, Honeycrisp, & Gala.  The recipe didn't indicate whether to peel them, and while I am one to avoid peeling all things (potatoes, apples, etc) as much as possible, after serious consideration I decided to peel the apples. As with all the cakes and cookies I will make I had to adjust slightly for the higher altitude (5700 ft) so I have marked the high altitude flour in parenthesis, I also raised the temperature by 5 degrees.  Because we have a gluten free gal, I decided to make her one as well.  I figure I will try to do that with as many recipes as possible, then we can share them with Grandpa.  So I have given a GF 1/2 recipe below.  Lastly, the recipe indicates adding nuts, if desired, but doesn't indicate what kind or how much.  I made an executive decision and added 1 C chopped, pecans, but assume walnuts would taste good as well.

I took it to a RS Luncheon and asked the sisters what they thought.  They gave it a 4.  That said, I am only giving it a 3.  It was delicious and very moist, but it was a lot of work peeling the apples, 4 cups of shredded apples is a lot of apples, so I don't know that I would make it very often.  And there just seemed to be something missing, I'm thinking granny smith apples (my favorite) would have given it more flavor. I used what I had on hand since I made it on Sunday, jazz, honey crisp, and gala.  I also think it could use a touch more salt.  As for the vanilla in the frosting, it was a little much, it almost had a bitter alcohol flavor.  I also doubled the frosting for the 9x13 & 8x8 cakes.  I think the original recipe wasn't enough.  :) I am planning to make it again at some point with the changes and see what happens.  As for the GF cake, it fell, something awful, It was only after I frosted it and we cut into it that I realized that I must not have tested the cake with a toothpick in the right place because it was almost raw in the middle, despite being on the top shelf, and cooking the whole hour and being half the size.  We did take the middle, scrape off as much frosting as possible and put it back in a greased loaf pan and baked it on 350 for about 30 minutes until it was really golden and it worked great.  I will be testing that one again to figure out what exactly went wrong, because our GF gal loved it, especially with swirls of frosting in it.

I also baked both cakes in the oven, and I baked the regular one an extra 20 minutes.  The edges got done a lot earlier than the middle of the cake so I covered the edges part of the way through to help them not get too brown.  I think I can attribute all of these baking errors to too much in my dumb oven.

RAW APPLE CAKE 
3/4 C cooking oil
2 eggs
2 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 C peeled, cored, shredded raw apples
1 C chopped pecans or walnuts, opt
2 1/2 (2 7/8) C flour
2 t soda
1/2 tsp salt

Stir together the oil and sugar, Beat in the eggs, one at a time (I goofed on this due to interruptions, and just dumped the oil, sugar, and eggs in all together, it seemed to work fine).  Add the vanilla and shredded apples.  Stir in nuts, if using.  Stir in the dry ingredients.  Bake in a greased, 9x13 pan, at 325 for 1 hour.

Frosting
1 sm pkg cream cheese
2 T butter
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese and butter together, add the vanilla.  Mix in the powdered sugar.  Spread on the cake.

GF RAW APPLE CAKE
3/8 C cooking oil
2 eggs
1 C sugar
1 t vanilla
2 C peeled, cored, & shredded raw apples
1 1/4 (1 1/2) C GF Flour mix
1 t soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 tsp, heaping, xanthan gum

Stir together the oil and sugar, Beat in the eggs, one at a time (I goofed on this due to interruptions, and just dumped the oil, sugar, and eggs in all together, it seemed to work fine).  Add the vanilla and shredded apples.  Stir in nuts, if using.  Stir in the dry ingredients.  Bake in a greased, 8x8 pan, at 325 for 50 min-1 hour.