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Here is an easy apple cake recipe for a delicious coffee cake that reminds you of grandma’s house! You’ll also find 10 tips for using apples, including tips on which apples are best for which purposes, how to use apples so they don’t go bad, and ideas for using apples in various foods!
10 Tips for Using Apples
Here are some useful tips to help you prepare food using apples:
- Baking apples include Granny Smith, McIntosh and Rome. These tend to be great for baking but not so good for eating unbaked. I like to keep apples like Gala, Jonathan and Golden Delicious on hand because you can eat them or bake with them.
- Red Delicious Apples are usually used for eating, but I have used them in a pinch in baking. Red Delicious apples become much softer when cooked, but since I like my apples sweet and very soft when cooked, that doesn’t bother me.
- When you have a partially eaten apple, save the good part and chop it into pieces. Place in a microwave safe dish. Blend together 1 tsp. each brown sugar, flour, oatmeal and margarine and a dash of cinnamon. Top the apple with the topping and microwave until tender.
- Core and slice apples very thin. Dehydrate and use in granola, eat alone or soften in warm water to use in recipes.
- Slice apples and use in Pancakes or waffles.
- To freeze apples: Peel, slice and core. Then store in 2 cup portions in freezer bags.
- Use soft apples in cooking. Just because they’re not crisp enough to be desirable doesn’t man they’re bad.
- Cut apples into small pieces and add to salads with a fruit based dressing.
- To keep apples crisp, keep them in the fridge to help them stay crisp.
- When you can, eat the peel on your apple. That is where 2/3 of the fiber is found.
- When making baked apples, you can put all kinds of things in the center, including candied pineapple, orange peel, ginger, peaches, berries, raisins, honey, corn syrup and even marshmallows.
This easy apple cake recipe makes a great snack cake that reminds you of grandma’s house! It is similar to a coffee cake, with a yummy apple flavor and makes a good cake for fall! It’s a great way to use extra fresh apples. Try it to bring some warm fuzzy feelings to your family.
Easy Apple Cake Recipe
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2½ cups all purpose flour
1¼ cups vegetable oil
2 eggs
3 cups chopped raw apples
1 cup nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°. Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well. Pour into a greased 9×13 inch baking pan and bake 1 hour, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
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Reader Interactions
Comments
- Bea
I have a cookbook that has recipes from World War II. I don’t even remember where I found it. I like to collect recipes from different time periods when people had it hard. People during World War II tryed to make do with their “food rations” and be creative with their recipes. There is one I really liked for apples and I thought you might like it Jill. It’s called “Apple-Orange Pie.” The ingredients are 4 apples, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 or 3 oranges, Pastry (2 crust pie). Peel and core the apples. Slice them into an unbaked pie crust. Add the oranges which have been peeled, sectioned and seeded. Pour 1/2 cup of sugar over all and cover with top crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. Note: If desired, add 1/2 cup cranberries and 2 tablespoons sugar before putting top crust on. I thought this would be good for the upcoming holidays.
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- Jill
Thanks Bea. This sounds like a nice pie to make around Christmas time.
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- Bea
I thought so too Jill. It would be a wonderful way to use oranges and have the peels for the Candied Orange Peels which I plan to make. Great combination.
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- grandma
This year my crab apple tree is loaded.
I usually with my husbands help make apple butter.
I was thinking this year of doubling it by using other apples as well.
What apples would be best for this.
Or would any type do.
I won’t us delicious but was think macs or ida reds.
any suggestions.
don’t have a lot of variety where we are unless I want to go expensive so the more common types would be nice.Reply
- Jill
Grandma have used every thing for apple butter including delicious. The main thing is you have to adjust the amount of sugar and some of them will cook more quickly or get softer faster too. If you were going to can apple slices or make pies it might make a difference but it all gets mooched up for apple butter so it doesn’t matter.
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- Morning Dove
I like making fruit leather with at least half apples. Very tasty and healthy alturnative to “Fruit” Roll Ups.
LizReply
- grandma
Jill our crab apple tree had more apples than we first thought. And there are still more out there when we figure out how to get them from the top branches.
But we have made about 16 quarts of apple butter. My husband helped and he had a bottle of wine in his hand and poured some into the slow cooker. I added two long sticks of cinnamon and some brown sugar splenda and when it was ready he put it through the potatoe ricer since the skins processed in the blender tend to make it bitter. He said it needed something so went to my spice rack and added some nutmeg. It is wonderful. The next day we did more and I added 2 drinking boxes of pineapple juice and the same spices and he added some cranberry wine. Another great pot full.
We also put the cores and spices along with wine into another slow cooker and the first lot of just the juice I poured over a pork shoulder roast I was cooking. The next two he put through the potatoe ricer and added to the apple butter. It added some great flavour from something I would normally just throw out.
I didn’t process it for canning so now I have a lot of sandwich bags with apple butter to last maybe a week. We don’t eat a lot of it but once in a while during the winter it is a nice treat. I also use it in baking and putting with pork meals when I want the meat to have a different flavour.
I decided to do one pot with the potatoe ricer while he was at work and I have decided if I ever do it again I will be stark naked in the back yard away from any surface. I had little spots of apple butter covering my clothes and a day later I was still finding apple butter blotches in places I didn’t think it could possibly reach. In other words it is messy. But I think well worth the cleaning up after.
It is also so easy.Reply
- Kathy
We have 2 dwarf apple trees in our backyard, AND live in apple-country. So when I have lots of apples, (and especially when the kids were little) we make applesauce. You can use up apple-seconds from the fruit-stand (not as costly), and/or the not-so-nice-looking ones from your own trees. And, I’ve found, that it’s much more tasty if you combine 3 kinds of apples or so. Ida Reds make an almost pink applesauce. I basically just wash & quarter them, cutting out any really bad spots, cook them til soft, then put thru a food mill (potato ricer), which keeps the stems/bad spots/core/skins in the ricer. Also it’s a boon to personally decide whether you want to add sugar, and if so, how much. I’ve learned NOT to add nutmeg or cinnamon until serving. This can be canned or frozen. The best part is using applesauce instead of oil in cake mixes…is less fat & has become a staple in my kitchen because of this!
- Jill
Good advice Kathy. I like to mix my apples too when I make apple pies.
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- Karen
I also make alot of applesauce as we have two crab apple trees in the yard. I also wash, cut in quarters, cook and put them through the ricer, or food mill. I divide them into two cup portions and freeze them. When I want to make apple butter I just add sugar and spices and cook for just a few minutes and have delicious apple butter. It takes just minutes and we have a great spread! Love all the posts on here. Such great ideas from all.
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- Shelly
I discovered a wonderful recipe a few years ago called “Crabapple Ketchup”. What a good way to use crabs rather than making sauce. It can be adjusted as to how sweet or tart your crabs are, how much vinegar and what kind and how much sugar and spice. I have done straight crabs, crabs mixed with Norland apples, used white vinegar, used apple cider vinegar, each change making a slightly different flavor.
The original recipe called for using the pulp from making jelly, but as I don’t make a lot of jelly, I found coring and chunking the crabs works just as well or even better. Crabapple Ketchup goes with most meats and sometimes makes a great flavor change snack when spread on bread or a biscuit.
3 lbs crabapple (10 -12 cups approx)
1 1/4 lbs brown sugar (just over 1/2 of a 2 lb bag)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 pint vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (opt.)
Cook slowly until thick. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.Reply
- Jill
This sounds really yummy Shelly and I have never seen anything like it before. I bet it would be good with many different meats. Thanks.
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- Terry
Jill, could you please tell me how to freeze apples without them being mushy when unthawed?
Thank you.Reply
- Jill
You know Terry I really don’t know if there is a way to freeze them and not have them get mushy. So many fruits do get mushy when you freeze them I usually use my frozen apples for pies or crisps and I like cooking them and making pie filling out of them before I freeze them. If I don’t want mushy apples I will dehydrate mine instead of freezing. Maybe some of our readers can help.
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- Amy
There is an apple tree near a park that I picked from last year. Most of the apples were on the ground. Not a great selection. I made applesauce. This year I want to go earlier and get some really good looking apples. I want to make apple bread. Everybody at work keeps asking when I’m making apple bread again.
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- Linda
You are calling for a 13 x 9 pan, showing a round 9 inch. Did you make 2 9 inch?
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- Jill
You can do it in 2 9 in if you want but we usually just use a 13×9 pan
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- Sylvia Surber
I love all your wonderful recipes! Please keep sending them to us.
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- Nancy Deschaine
My how I love your cookbooks. Just hope I’m able to get the hard cover cookbook
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- Mary Summers
I made the cake recently and really enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to refrigerated or left out (I always get confused on that with baked goods), and for how long. I noticed there was oil settling in the bottom of the pan, and assumed that was normal. Could you give more details on this?
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- Jill
Mary I never put mine in the fridge because it doesn’t really have ingredients in it that can spoil easily. Some people do though so either way. One main cause for oil in the bottom of the pan is using too much oil or such to grease the bottom of it.
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