AppleJack Cake

My Easy Family Recipe For Glazed Cinnamon Apple Cake!

This hearty cake tastes like a muffin made love to a glazed donut.

It’s September and fall has officially made her soft launch. The leaves here are just starting to change. The nights have dipped into the low 40s, and while I haven’t lit the wood stove yet it could be any day now. And all of that means one thing: it’s time to bake some apple cake.

When I bought this place in 2010, I purchased a $20 dwarf green apple tree sapling and planted it near the front of the house. 14 years later that tree has grown into a sturdy fella and big green apples are right outside my door. It’s an honor to bake this family recipe (with my own personal alterations) with apples from this farm from a tree I planted as a 27-year old.

Growing up in Pennsylvania there was always a baking pan of apple cake on the stove. My father was so good at whipping together a few pans a year, and it would sit there like rations for autumnal joy. It was hearty, full of fruit, and just dense enough that each bite felt like fortifying yourself for an afternoon of leaf jumping and trick or treating. This is a solid cake you can pack for a day of fishing, hiking, or hunting. I’ve stored apple cake in saddlebags for long trail rides and had it tucked away for hawk walks. It’s a delight of thick pieces of spiced apple marinated in cinnamon sugar. A texture like someone turned a tray of muffins into a cake, just sweet enough to feel like dessert.

Over the years I have played with this “recipe” to get it exactly where I wanted it. This is a big deal because I hate following recipes, but in an attempt to make sure you fine folks get the same experience, I have baked this cake 4 times this week. This is the real thing, and I hope you like it!

Ingredients

Tools:

Do not use an electric hand mixer or kitchen aid

• Big bowl for mixing the batter

• Another big bowl, for prepping wet ingredients

• A smaller bowl for mixing glaze

• Large soft spatula/wooden spoon

• Peeler & knife

• Small hand whisk (or fork if you’re nasty)

• 8x8” cake pan (or muffin tray if you prefer smaller servings)

• Oven capable of 350°
  

Cake:

• 3 green apples

• 3 eggs

• 1 stick of melted butter

• 1/2 cup veg oil

• 2 cups flour

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• Butter for cake pan grease

Glaze:

• 5 heaping tbs of powdered sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

• 2-3 tbs of water or milk

Start With Apple Prep

3 apples, peeled and diced, or whatever gets you to 2 cups

To begin, this cake it takes a little preparation. The morning you want to bake this cake, peel and dice the apples and set them into your wet ingredient bowl. You are going to coat the naked fruit with 1/2 a cup of sugar and a little cinnamon (no more than a 1/2 tsp - do not overdo it).

If you want to be very thorough you can mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a mug first, as to evenly distribute them better so the apples get an even coating. Mix the cinnamon sugar with the apples until every diced piece is coated, and then set the bowl in the fridge for at least an hour (more is better, like 3-5) to absorb the sweetness. You will end up with softer fruit and a collected liquid of apple juice, sugar, and cinnamon in the bottom of your wet bowl and that juice will be key to making this cake awesome so don’t drain it.

An even coating is key. It helps keep the fruit from browning in the fridge and marinates the apples to peak yummy in your tummy

Prepping Dry Ingredients (Main Mixing Bowl)

Combine the 2 cups of flour, remaining 1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp baking powder in a bowl. Mix those dry ingredients together well and set aside. Mix with that big ol’ spatula or spoon.

Prepping Wet Ingredients (Fridge Bowl)

In your fridge bowl of wet apple glory, crack 3 big eggs, the 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1tsp of vanilla extract, and melted stick of butter. When all of that is evenly mixed, pour it into the bowl of dry ingredients and spend a minute or two combing these worlds by hand. Fold and stir until you can’t see any stray flour. This batter will be thick, and it should be, but not stodgy (overly dense). It should take a little work to mix it all up, and the batter should be a lovely light brown with big chunks of fruit.

Oh, it’s chunky.

Baking Time!

Heat oven to 350°

Before you pour your lovely batter into the cake pan, coat the entire pan with butter. I use the end of a solid stick like I was a toddler with a gluestick during craft time. Coat the entire base and walls of the pan with enough butter to make a thin coating. It shouldn’t take much (less than a tbs for whole pan or muffin tray, and that’s generous). Once pan is greased, use that soft spatula to coax it into the pan or muffin tray, and bake in oven for anywhere from 20-30 minutes (muffins) or 35-45 minutes (cake pan).

You’ll have to check both to make sure they are baked through. Use a butter knife or skewer to poke the center. It’s done when it comes out clean and the cake is lightly browned on top.

When cake is done, remove from oven and set to cool. Once it is mostly cool (it’s okay if it’s slightly warm to the touch) you are going to prep the glaze, which is so easy you won’t believe you aren’t glazing everything. It really is a game changer for muffins and fruit cakes.

Final Glaze!

In a small bowl, dump five HEAPING tablespoons of powdered sugar. I mean heaping. You carry as much powdered sugar as possible with each scoop into that bowl. Sprinkle in the 1/4 tsp of cinnamon (this is so important, do not add more or the glaze will turn brown and be way too spiced), a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract, and 2 tbs of milk or water.

Whisk together until you end up with a thick, light brown, paste. You want it to be liquid enough to be able to pour out of the bowl, but not so liquid it’s runny like thin syrup. Think of the consistency of paper mâché paste. If it’s too thick, add another 1/2 tbs of milk or water at a time to loosen it.

Once the glaze is ready, you pour and spread it over the entire of the cake or muffin tops. You want that baby COATED. It will at first look absolutely disgusting, but in 20 minutes or so that glaze will harden into a clear cinnamon sugar top that rivals any donut, and is a delight to bite into. It adds just enough sweetness to make the cake feel more like a dessert, and it makes breakfast even better. A slice of glazed apple cake with your morning coffee on a September weekend morning will make you want to sell your townhouse and move to a farm. Or at least, consider it.

Enjoy!

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Getting Prepared For Winter at Cold Antler Farm!

Pork and apples; a match made in heaven!

I am so happy to share that family recipe, and I hope a bunch of you make it and report back! But in the meantime, this farm has to prepare for winter and it’s never been harder to make a living.

Right now as I am trying to catch up with the August mortgage payment as soon as possible— I still have firewood I use for winter heat and hundreds of bales of hay for winter animal fodder to put up. I need to make sales more than ever. To encourage you, I am sharing what’s available from the farm, right now, if you are so motivated to support it.

Pork Share Available For Next Round of Pigs!

You haven’t had bacon until you had bacon like this.

If you like pork and prefer it raised on a small farm where no pig ever sees the inside of a slaughterhouse, while still being professionally butchered, smoked, and packaged - have I got a deal for you.

This farm prides itself on raising pork CSA style (Community Supported Agriculture) which means you are not buying bacon from me. No darling, you are a co-owner of a living pig. You are purchasing a 1/4 or 1/2 share of that animal and your payment includes the feed, the time to raise it all summer, fall, and winter, and the cost of butchering the animal. All is included when you pay upfront.

I have 2 1/4 shares (or a half share) available now for next season’s pigs. (The pigs I have now are already sold long ago, and are their owners are picking up the pork this January). If you’d like to be a part of this farm, invest in pork, and are able to come here and pick it up in person - send that email.

(I do not ship meat)

Cold Antler Farm is 3.5 hours from NYC and Boston, and 4.5 hours from Philly. It’s a lovely drive through the upper Hudson valley and you’re welcome to join me by the wood stove for your share come pickup day.

Reply to this newsletter or contact me through email (dogsinourparks@gmail.com) for more information. First paid, first reserved. Please act fast!

Logos, Pet Portraits, & Copywriting

I have my BFA in graphic design. Before I left my corporate gig to live feral full-time, I used to design for HGTV, Coldwater Creek, and Orvis. My specialty is logos and branding, as I have designed hundreds over the last decade and it’s the kind of work I can do on my 10 year old iMac with software I already have.

When you hire me to do a logo, you pay one flat rate and that comes with unlimited revisions until you are happy for the design of your choice. You also have the option to purchase other designs created during the process at a discounted price.

Logos make great Yuletide gifts, as anyone can use design work for anything from your bar trivia team’s shirts to you name on professional letterhead for resumes, to your small hobby farm. Send that email! And you can get a discount for purchasing your gig in advance!

I also draw pet portraits in an American animation style (think Disney) that are a big hit. They are sketched by hand on 9x12” Bristol paper. And then once sketch is approved, inked and painted with watercolor. Every pet portrait I get a little better, and right now they are on sale as well! Always Shipped Free ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

And of course, you need a writer? Copy for your website? A better way to describe your products? A great introduction to your business? Don’t use AI, or some other soulless source stealing from actual writers - hire me. It’s cheaper than you might realize and turnaround is pretty darn fast.

Goatsmilk Soaps!

Want the greatest stocking stuffer or host gift of all time? I make soaps to order, either custom scents you request, or you can buy bulk boxes of ten or twenty bars with free shipping (soap is heavy so you’re saving $18+ buying bulk boxes) the catch is bulk boxes are made from leftovers of custom orders and so you can’t pick the scents, and it takes longer to fill the order (2 weeks to a month), but you can get a year of soap for $60 and help a single queer farmer just trying to make it to the next month.

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