recipe: autumn apple cake

Autumn is officially here, along with...apples!!! Yesterday, Mr. Boom and I went apple picking with my cousin and our god-daughter. It was sunny and warm - a perfect day to pick the ripe Honeycrisps and Jonanthans. We ended up bringing home close to 9 pounds so, I needed a good apple recipe and quick! I found this heirloom one online this morning, complete with a rave review and lots of photos and had to give it a try.
Apple Cake
Credit to SmittenKitchen

6 apples (I used the two types I had on-hand)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional -I omitted)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan or bundt pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl). In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

3. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

The Verdict: Delicious!!! The house smelled heavenly as this was baking, it rose up nice and high and the top apples got carmelized and golden brown. This is a dense but very moist cake that was simple to put together. The longest step was peeling and dicing the apples. I was a little concerned about the seemingly overly wet consistency of the batter following the instructions as written, but it baked up beautifully. The flavors are rich and deep. I sent a large piece over to my in-law's and, within minutes, my father in law was calling me to rave and give his thanks (and asking if there was still more to go around!). I think this will end up a fall favorite.
As always, if you try this recipe, I'd love to hear what you think!

While we were at the orchard yesterday, my husband snapped my 24 week belly phot0 - apples and all! I think this is my favorite weekly shot so far :-)