This is my kvetch about some cookbooks. They are written as if by God and and as if no reader would question any step in the recipe. Emily Luchetti of Stars Desserts is such a writer. I was looking for an apple cake because I had a lot of apples and wanted to make a cake. My sister is partial to the chunky apple walnut cake in Silver Palette and I'm OK with that one. I think it appeared in some previous entry. But I didn't have any vegetable oil that wasn't rancid and I wanted to use butter because I prefer a butter cake. So there is Emily Luchetti with her morning apple cake.
5 apples, butter, sugar, eggs, ww and white flour. I substituted some brown sugar for the white. It was stiff. I hadn't even added all the flour and it was extremely stiff. Seemed more like a cookie recipe. No where in the recipe does it say, "the batter will be very stiff." So I panicked and added some sour cream. Actually, by the time you have folded in all the chopped apples (she wanted them "shredded, grated," I opted for a medium fine chop in the miniprep. Less work, less to clean) it would not have been too stiff. I greased and floured the bundt pan as directed, but I really think from now on, if I can't use parchment, I'm going to use Pam. It isn't worth it.
So the cake fell apart and even after an extra 20 minutes of baking, it still wasn't done, but I took it out anyway.
So I had a cake that was in pieces and really undercooked, nary an air bubble or crumb to be found, and it is still the best apple cake I've made. I plan to make it again, without the sour cream and with the Pam and cool it in the pan as directed.
Back to the kvetch. I wish she had reassured me that the batter would be stiff and also made a bigger deal about the cool in pan part so I would have noticed it.
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