About 40 miles away from me there's this wonderful little town called Apple Hill. 

And it's known for everything --you guessed it--apple! There are about 40 farms you can go between. Some have orchards where you can pick your own. Some are bigger than others and sell baked goods and candy. Some you can even  go to and cut down your own Christmas tree.

Open Labor day through Christmas Eve I usually take a run up there at least once to get my pies for the holidays. Pumpkin/apple (yum!), cherry/apple, apple crisp,apple donuts,apple struedel,apple cidar, apple and pumpkin butter, apple cinnamon rolls...you name it,they got it.

One of my favorites is the Apple Cake. They sell booklets with recipes and this one I'm going to share with you. Makes the house smell delish!

And pretty simple to put together.

The recipe calls for:

4 cups diced apples (It doesn't say to peel them but I do) You should probably start by placing these at the bottom of your mixing bowl and dump everything on top. This recipe is not exactly very clear with some of the instructions.

Now Combine Together:

2 cups sugar (this time I used 1 1/2 cup reg. sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. I advise to just use reg. sug)

1/2 cup oil  (used Canola)

2 eggs (used just the whites but it's up to you :)

Now it says to: 

Add,sifted together. (To sift or not to sift! I never do. Maybe I should start?)

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

2  tsp. baking soda

Add to apple mixture. Pour into a 9x13 greased cake pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Serve hot,warm or cold. Plain,frosted or with whip cream.

This is what it looked like before going in the oven. I think I screwed up because I dumped the sugars and oil together and while I was taking pictures the sugar really soaked up the oil making it kind of lumpy and not so smooth. It's very important to make sure you combine the oil/sugar and eggs and stir them immediately together.

And don't use brown sugar like I showed in the photo. It just doesn't mix well in the cake.

I must sound like a horrible baker,lol. But just sharing my mistakes.

Note: If you can find it, Saigon cinnamon is cinnamon at it's best! Much more cinnamon-y than regular cinnamon. So flavorful! 

My end product was not what I wanted. I've made this several times before with perfect results. It was because of that sugar/oil thingy mentioned above that really ruined it.

My biggest suggestion is if you are going to be showing folks how to do a step by step recipe...hire a photographer!!  LoL.