Lemon-Rum Glazed Apple Cake

Soft, cinnamon-spice apples, a perfect crumb cake that is not too too sweet and is moist without ever getting soggy or dense, and a light lemon, rum glaze that adds a bit of zip to the edges . . . mmmm.  Sadly for my waistline, this cake never lasts very long once it's out of the oven and onto my pretty cake plate.

Simple enough for a coffee-cake (Thanksgiving or Christmas morning?) and pretty enough for dessert, this cake is easy to whip up and always pleases a crowd.  Enjoy!

Lemon-Rum Glazed Apple Cake
(generously adapted from the Shenandoah Apple Cake in Virginia Bed & Breakfast Cookbook, which is full of lovely things)

Cake
5 Mutzu apples, peeled and thinly sliced [or some sort of apple that is crisp and a tad tart; the peeling part is easy if you have one of these beautiful inventions]
2 T. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
5 T + 2 c. organic sugar
4 large organic, free-range eggs
1 c. melted butter [2 sticks]
3 c. all-purpose flour [unbleached & not enriched; I have not yet tried whole grain flours, but I think a soft white wheat would work as up to 50% of the flour amount]
1 T. baking powder
2 1/2 t. vanilla extract [the real stuff]
Juice of 1 orange [ok, I cheated and used 1/4 c. orange juice, not from consentrate]

*Preheat your oven to 350F
*Grease & flour a bundt pan (or tube pan, but I don't have one) [I use non-hydrogenated, palm oil shortening--it can be found at Harris Teeter]
*In a medium bowl, combine the apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 5 T sugar; mix gently to coat the apples.
*In a large bowl [I use my mixer because I have no hand-strength], beat eggs with 2 c. sugar.
*Add butter, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and orange juice to the large bowl and mix well.
*Pour one layer of "batter" into the pan.  Then, put a layer of spiced apples.  (Try not to get the majority of the apples by the edges because it makes the cake crumble apart when you're cutting it later on.)  Alternate layers, ending with the batter if you're using a bundt pan.  [If you are using a tube pan, you can end with a decoratively arranged layer of apples and keep that side up when it's finished.]
*Bake for 60-70 min.  If it's a bundt pan, the top will look a little browned and a toothpick will come out mostly clean (unless you stabbed a juicy apple!).  If you did the tube pan with the apples on top style, the top should look a deep golden brown and be dryish.
*Let it cool for a bit in the pan until it separates from the edges a tad (10 min.), and then ease it out on a rack to cool.

Enjoy!  It pairs especially well with black tea, coffee, chai, or cider.

Glaze [if you want; it's perfectly lovely without, and this is just for the bundt pan version]
1/8 c. lemon juice
1/8 c. dark, spiced rum (or water)
1 1/2 c. confectioner's sugar

Mix & pour over cooled cake

In Whom do You Hope?

My conservative friends: We have two choices--to complain, to fear, to be walking stress balls . . . or to begin to live in such a way that people will see that a Christian way of life is joyful, kind, just, hard-working, and (when called upon) bold.
 
Except for a few brief periods of time in the last 2,000 years, Christians, and especially Catholics, have rarely been the "favored" or "approved" group of people.  In fact, the rapidly declining religious freedom we enjoy in this country is still envied by Christians across the world, especially in the Middle East and Asia. But that freedom is not preserved through silence or inaction.

And the best type of language is that of daily charity and truth to others; the best type of action is to be engaged in our world, affirming the dignity of others through justice and love, daily. Shutting down, becoming insular--this will not make a better world for our children. In so far as we can, WE must create the world our children know. We should not place all our hopes on a human government to create that world for them. Those hopes will always fail.

We find our hope in Christ who conquered death itself. Men will promise "hope," "change," and "a better tomorrow;" only Christ can say, "I make all things new." Perhaps we "believed in America" these last few months. I encourage you now to believe in God--and act that way.