strawberries in paris

A Snowy Gingerbread Apple Cake

When Martina, our new German friend, announced she would be having Ned’s lab unofficial Christmas party, I bounced onto the opportunity to make dessert! I went searching for something with fruit and something very wintery- and found this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. So on Friday night of the beginning of the Baltimore snowpocalypse I went to dinner with Jes at Taverna Corvino, a Federal Hill wine bar, and somehow (oh yes somehow…) ended up drinking quite a bit of wine! It was spread out over four hours and we had a lovely feast of small plates (sorry no blog post though- no camera!).

So yes- this story will relate to cake! On Saturday, as the snow fell down hard and fast, my stomach was not happy with me.  Neither was my head and because of that my cake making skills were severely lacking… BUT, I did have all of the ingredients ready, so dear sweet Neddy came to the cake rescue! He labored over this baby for about 2 hours and whattdayaknow?? It turned out amazingly! And the best part about this is that Ned is actually excited about baking now! Usually, he wears the chef hat and I’m the one with the strawberry apron and flour and sugar all over myself.   But because of this baking challenge, Ned is no longer “scared” to venture into my domain and having this new cookbook is going to help (yay early xmas presents!). So anyways, about this cake- it was moist and gingery and appley. I have this weird thing with soggy pie crust and mushy apples, so apple pie is something I never crave-but this apple dessert- woweee! It’s basically a tarte tatin, but with a gingerbread cake instead of puff pastry! That Deb is a whiz- never lets me down! Go check out the recipe and some snowy pictures below.

Here’s a view of the area north of Johns Hopkins. It was pretty treacherous driving the normal 5 minute drive to campus, and took a half hour just to get into a parallel parking spot! So on the way home from the party- we decided to walk! It took about an hour, but it was lovely walking in the snowy silence with my darling boyfriend.

Gingerbread Apple Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Karen Bates at the Philo Apple Farm via the New York Times

Serves 12

Ingredients:

Topping
4 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing pan
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
Pinch of salt
4 apples (about 1 3/4 pounds), peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch wedges

Batter
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup dark molasses
1/3 cup honey
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Very softly whipped cream

Directions:

Make the topping: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 10-inch cake pan. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, four minutes, then swirl in salt. Remove from heat and pour into the bottom of your cake pan. Make circles of overlapping apple slices on top of the caramel. Chop any remaining slices and place them in the gaps.

Make the batter: Using a mixer, blend 1/2 cup butter and the sugar on medium-low speed. Increase the speed to high and cream until light and fluffy.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, molasses, honey and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Alternate mixing the flour and molasses mixtures into the butter mixture, adding the next once the last has been incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake at least 45 to 50 minutes (thanks to commenter klp for reminding me this took a bit longer) or until a wooden tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a platter (one that will catch spills, unlike what you see in the pictures above).

Serve warm or cool with very softly whipped cream.

I found a sweet flag in the snowstorm walking through Medfield! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!