Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips and Coconut

Every year our synagogue, Temple Beth El in Stamford, CT. brings Christmas dinner to two homeless shelters in the area (and helps serve too). 

This year I roasted a turkey for the event and also sent two cakes, including this one, a Banana Crunch Cake with Chocolate Chips and Coconut.

This is a very versatile recipe. My 9”x13” pan was in use, so I used a 9” square cake pan instead.

The result: cake was fabulous (yes, I cut into it and snipped off a tiny piece for myself!!). It was much moister, although it took longer to bake of course. The sheet cake version has a more tender, more delicate crumb.

Either way — as a tall 9” square cake or a 9”x13 sheet cake, this dessert has all the right counterpoints: tender cake, crunchy top, sweet and salty at the same time. It’s also lovely looking. A good choice for a dessert if you’re having people over for new year dinner.

I’ve made this cake in several variations: you can add chopped dried fruit or raisins or season it with cinnamon or orange peel instead of or in addition to vanilla extract.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips and Coconut

Crust:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 33/4 cup quick oats
• 3/4 cup flaked coconut
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter and set it aside. In a bowl, combine the oats, coconut, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix ingredients. Pour in the melted butter. Mix until the dry ingredients are thoroughly coated with the butter. Set aside. 

Cake:

• 1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 mashed bananas
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x9” cake pan or a 9”x13” cake pan. Make the crust and set it aside. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a small bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the eggs and bananas and beat the ingredients for another 2-3 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture and yogurt and blend in ingredients thoroughly. Stir in the vanilla extract and chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Cover the top evenly with the crust mixture. If using a 9”x9” pan, bake for about 50 minutes; if using a 9”x13” pan, bake for about 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 12-18 servings

Carrot Cake with Date Sugar Frosting

Expert cooks always tell you to read a recipe first so you can understand what you’re in for and also so you’re sure you have all the equipment and ingredients you need.

It’s one of the rules of the road that I taught my kids and students in my cooking classes.

So I sure was surprised the other day when I was about to prepare a cream cheese frosting for a carrot cake I had baked and realized I didn’t have enough confectioners sugar.

How did I not have an extra box of confectioners sugar in the house?

Anyway, I didn’t.

So I went to my alternative rule: if you are missing something, equipment or ingredient, and you can make a reasonable substitute, go ahead and do it.

That is exactly what I did. I didn’t feel like going out to the store so I used what I had: date sugar and a little bitty amount of confectioners sugar.

Also, I only had whipped cream cheese, not the regular kind.

The result? A delicious, soft, beautifully caramel-colored frosting that was perfect for my carrot cake.

I will do this one again for my New Years Eve company.

Carrot Cake with Date Sugar Frosting

• 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1-/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups applesauce
• 3 cups of shredded raw carrots
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup shelled, soft nuts, optional
• Date Sugar Frosting

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla until thoroughly blended. Add the applesauce and carrots and mix the ingredients to distribute them evenly. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine ingredients completely. Fold in the raisins and nuts, if used. Spoon the batter evenly into the two pans. Bake for 30   minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Frost with Date Sugar Frosting.

Date Sugar Frosting

• 10 ounces whipped cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/4 cup date sugar (or use maple sugar or brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• milk

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until they are well combined and uniform in color. Add the confectioners sugar, date sugar and lemon juice and beat the ingredients to blend them completely. Add as much milk as needed to make the frosting smooth and spreadable.

Makes enough for one 9-inch layer cake
Serves 12-16

Banana-Chocolate Cake with Dried Cranberries

Banana Chocolate Cake with Dried Cranberries

Today is last time our local Hadassah chapter will be hosting a Tea for cancer patients and caregivers at Stamford Hospital. The women have been baking and serving hot tea and pastries for 5 years now — in fact today is our 5th Anniversary — to great festivity and much success. The patients, who have been undergoing chemo and other treatments have looked forward to our bi-weekly party. Their caregivers have also enjoyed the respite that this little get-together brings.

Unfortunately we have to stop. Fortunately, it is for a good reason. Stamford Hospital is in a building boom, growing into a modern, state-of-the-art facility. Construction is going on everywhere and there is simply too much confusion already for so many people to be bringing in tables and teapots and cakes and cookies.

We will be back. Afternoon Tea has meant too much to too many people over the last five years for us to give it up.

So, everyone, we’ll see you later, for sure.

This is the last cake for awhile.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Banana-Chocolate Cake with Dried Cranberries

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting the pan
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup sour cream, plain yogurt or kefir
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a (10-inch) 8-cup bundt pan. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract and beat for one minute or until thoroughly blended. Add the bananas and sour cream and beat them in. Add the flour mixture and beat until the batter is well blended. Fold in the cranberries. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes one cake, serving 12-16

Date Honey Cake

I’ve fallen in love with Date Honey. Actually it isn’t honey, the kind made by bees, but a syrup made from dates. It’s thick (though not as thick as bee honey) and robust (but not as strong as molasses) and gloriously sweet, (though not overpowering).

I’ve used it on/in so many foods that I’ve had to order a few more jars (there are several brands online; I haven’t seen any in my local supermarkets). I like it best on plain yogurt, though some of the official “tasters” in my life said it was best over ice cream.

Beyond how delicious it tastes, I’ve also learned that in the bible, when it talks of honey, it means date honey, not bee honey (in most cases).

I love learning stuff like this.

All of this means that this year, I am making my Aunt Belle’s family-famous honey cake using date honey. Not that Aunt Belle’s cake isn’t still a big winner; just that Date Honey Cake is something new and I want to share it with my family and friends.

Date Honey Cake is not as heavy as regular honey cake, a fact that might be appealing to those who complain that Honey Cake is too dense.

Here’s the recipe:

Date Honey Cake

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons grated fresh orange peel

1 cup date honey

1/2 cup cold, strong coffee

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

sliced almonds, optional

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan. Line the pan with parchment paper, then lightly grease the paper. Set the pan aside. Mix the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and orange peel together into a bowl. Set aside. Mix the date honey, coffee and vegetable oil together and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Stir in the honey mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter some sliced almonds on top if desired. Bake for about 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 servings

Eggs: Size Matters; Classic Genoise

Before I buy eggs, I open the carton to see if any are broken or otherwise unacceptable (an occasional egg will not look clean, for example). If the eggs are okay, I close the box and take it.

I almost always buy large eggs because they are the most useful. I’m sure you already know this, but just in case you don’t, recipes that have been developed by food writers, chefs and so on, assume you will be using large size eggs, especially for baked goods and custards. It should be noted in the list of ingredients, but if not, large eggs are what they mean.

Why is this important? Because if a recipe has been developed using size large and you use a different size, the texture and flavor of the cake (cookies, quickbread, etc.) or custard you are making will be affected and sometimes the recipe may fail completely. 

Of course you can substitute — if a recipe calls for 4 large eggs, you can use 3 jumbo or 5 medium — but most home cooks don’t and may wonder why a recipe didn’t work.

Egg size must meet USDA standards and is measured by weight per dozen, not actual dimensions. Large eggs are 24 ounces per dozen.

That could mean the eggs in a carton all look about the same size. OR, they could look like the two eggs in the photo. One looks much larger than the other.

I would not normally have bought the particular carton with these eggs because of this differential, but I wanted to take a photo just so I could write this post. Besides, egg size does not matter when it comes to scrambled eggs or French toast or egg salad, so I can use these for that kind of dish.

But size does matter for recipes such as genoise, the delicate, classic sponge cake used in so many European style cakes and confections. Genoise has no leavening other than the eggs. They must be the right ones, the right size.

Genoise is a building block kind of recipe. For an easy summer dessert, slice it in half and stuff the middle with whipped cream and fresh berries. You can frost it if you like. Or make it into Baked Alaska. And dozens of other recipes (I’ll be posting throughout the next few months).

But to begin, here’s Classic Genoise using LARGE eggs

Classic Genoise

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup cake flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 large eggs at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch or 10-inch cake pan, place a parchment paper circle on the bottom and lightly grease the paper. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Sift the flour and salt together three times. Set aside. Crack the eggs into the mixing bowl of an electric mixer (or a large bowl to use with a hand mixer). Beat the eggs until thoroughly combined. Add the sugar and vanilla extract to the eggs. Beat at medium speed for 8-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick and pale-cream color and falls ribbon-like back into the bowl when the beater is lifted. Gently fold 1/4 of the flour into the egg mixture with a large rubber spatula, folding just until the flour has been incorporated. Repeat with the remaining flour three more times, adding the melted butter with the last addition. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the sides of the cake have begun to separate from the edges of the pan and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then invert it on to a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes one cake

Red Velvet Cake

Last week a New York Times article bemoaned the fate of Red Velvet, which, like so many other American products, got twisted and turned and commercialized beyond repair and has been reproduced in so many gimmicky ways — red velvet candles, red velvet body mist, and so on — that it has become preposterous.

We’ve all seen this happen before. When something, anything is popular, there are going to be those who want to cash in on it in ways never intended.

They can sell it, but of course we don’t have to buy it. And if we don’t buy it, they will stop selling it and we can move on.

But that doesn’t mean that the original product was outlandish. There is a reason that Red Velvet Cake has endured. People love how it tastes. It has a miraculously soft texture. In its article, the New York Times, while ridiculing the commercialization, deemed Red Velvet Cake a classic.

Truth to tell, I never understood the wow in the whole red velvet cake thing. To me the versions I tasted seemed as if they couldn’t make up their minds about whether to be a vanilla cake with too much color and too-little cocoa to make a flavor difference or a devil’s-food cake.

But after experimenting somewhat with recipes, I came up with one that’s mighty good! So, now I get it. It isn’t vanilla cake. Or devil’s-food. Or chocolate cake. It’s its own thing. A classic. Here’s the recipe, plus a recipe for frosting that’s way less sweet than most:

Red Velvet Cake

• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  1/3 cup cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
  1 teaspoon salt
  2 cups sugar
  1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
  3 large eggs, at room temperature
  1 ounce red food coloring mixed with 6 tablespoons water
  1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1-1/4 cups plain yogurt
  2 teaspoons baking soda
  2 teaspoons white vinegar
  Lemon-Cream Cheese Frosting 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 3 9-inch cake pans. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl and set aside. Beat the sugar and vegetable oil together at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the food coloring mixture and vanilla extract and stir the ingredients at low speed until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the yogurt, beating the ingredients after each addition. Mix the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl, pour it into the batter and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon the batter equally among the cake pans. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake layers cool for about 10 minutes, then insert them onto a cake rack to cool completely. Before serving, frost the cake.

Lemon-Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
  1/2 cup butter at room temperature
  2 cups confectioner sugar
  1 tablespoon lemon juice
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel

Beat the cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon peel together at low-medium speed until smooth, creamy and well blended.

Makes 10-12 servings

Tagged: red velvet cake, cake, dessert

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Lemon Buttermilk Cake

This week I promised to bake a pie as my contribution to the biweekly Afternoon Tea our local Hadassah group holds for cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital.

But I’ve been incredibly busy, especially because of all the cookies and the challah I baked for my grandchild’s bat mitzvah last Saturday.

Thank goodness for my freezer. It’s always stuffed with goodies “just in case,” as my mother always said, “you get unexpected company or you have to bring food to someone.”

Like this week.

I brought this Lemon Buttermilk Cake, which is a favorite anyway according to the nursing staff, because patients undergoing chemotherapy apparently lose some tasting ability and tangy, lemony foods are more appealing to them.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

12 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup coconut oil

1-3/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup grated fresh lemon peel

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Glaze:

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

Grease a 10-cup bundt pan, then sprinkle the insides with flour or plain dry bread crumbs. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium, cream the butter, coconut oil and sugar together for 3-4 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk. Beat after each addition and scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the lemon peel and lemon juice to the batter and blend them in. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about one hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Mix the glaze ingredients and brush over the cake. Let cool before serving. Makes 16 servings

Grandmother Sue’s, Vaughan Mitchell’s Fruitcake

My friend Vaughan Mitchell Z"L died this year.

I actually didn’t know him very well. In fact I only met him twice. But we became friends over email after his wife Sally, whom I met online on a medical information site, mentioned that every year her husband made the most fabulous fruitcake.

I love fruitcake.

Yes, there are people who love this thing that everyone’s supposed to hate. That, come Christmas season, is the butt of jokes. Vaughan and I were among these people.

So we started a correspondence about it.

The fruitcake he made was from an old recipe that had been in his family for generations, the original passed down from “Grandmother Sue.” I never asked him whose grandmother it was. Was she his grandmother’s grandmother? His grandmother? And now I’ll never know.

But Vaughan, who was a retired businessman who lived in Texas, used Grandmother Sue’s recipe as a base. He loved to tinker with it. Sometimes he added dried blueberries, sometimes candied cherries, sometimes pecans, sometimes almonds, most times bourbon — but once in a while he’d switch to brandy. And of course he had to bring it up to date. The original recipe had some instructions that included items like “half a ten cent bottle of vanilla extract.”

Best of all, one year he asked whether I would like one.

It was the best fruitcake I ever ate. 

For years after that we would both make Grandmother Sue’s Fruitcake and exchange one so he could taste my version and I could taste his.

Vaughan was a smart, funny, generous, soft-spoken man.

I miss him and will miss our fruitcake exchange.

I baked Grandmother Sue’s fruitcake this year. I’m thinking I should give one away.

But who should I send it to?

Grandmother Sue’s, Vaughan Mitchell’s  Fruitcake

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon each: ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

5 large eggs

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup bourbon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup black currant jelly

1/2 pound golden raisins

1/4 pound dried currants

1/4 pound dried cranberries

1/4 pound chopped dates

1 pound mixed candied fruit (cherries, pineapple, citron) and/or dried fruit (apricots, prunes, peaches, pears)

1/2 pound coarsely chopped nuts

cheesecloth

bourbon

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease 3 8”x4”x2-1/2” pans (or 6 small loaf pans) and line the pans with parchment paper. Lightly grease the paper. Combine one cup of the flour and spices and stir with a whisk to blend ingredients evenly. Set aside. Place the butter, white sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix at medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the eggs and blend them in thoroughly. Add the flour mixture alternating with the molasses, bourbon, vanilla extract and jelly. Place the fruits and nuts in a bowl, add the remaining 1/2 cup flour and toss to coat the fruits and nuts. Add this mixture to the batter and blend it in. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans. Place the pans in a bain-marie (a larger pan filled with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the baking pans). Place the bain-marie in the oven and bake the cakes for 2 to 2-1/2 hours (less time for smaller loaf pans) or until firm. Remove the pans from the bain-marie and let cool for 20 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pan and let cool completely. Cut cheesecloth large enough to wrap the cakes. Soak the cheesecloth in bourbon and wrap the cake with the bourbon soaked cloths. Wrap the cakes in aluminum foil, then plastic wrap. Let mellow for 3-4 weeks. Check occasionally; if cheesecloth seems dry, brush a little more bourbon on top.

Makes 3 (or 6) fruitcakes.

Mary Todd Lincoln Courtin’ Cake

I saw the movie “Lincoln” and loved it, despite the inaccuracies. But the brouhaha about the details got me to thinking about other factual errors concerning Lincoln including the myth about Mary Todd Lincoln’s “Courtin’ Cake,” sometimes referred to as Mary Todd Lincoln White Cake.

The story goes that Mary baked this cake for Abe while they were courting and that he liked it so much that either it got him to propose or that she made it frequently after they were married. And so on and so on.

None of it has actually been documented. And in fact, Mary came from a wealthy, slave-owning family and so it is doubtful she ever cooked before she was married.

Well, I say, who cares?

Cake is cake and this one, attributed to her, is a particularly delicious one. I don’t care if she got the recipe from a cookbook or a bakery or whatever. Or whether she ever actually baked it or it was baked for her and Mr. Lincoln by someone else.

There are many variations on Mrs. Lincoln’s recipe. Some are for layer cake with marshmallow frosting but most are bundt types with just a sprinkle of confectioner’s sugar as decoration. I like those best. This cake is rich and moist, almost like a tea bread, and icing or frosting might be overkill.

This is a good cake anytime, for “courting” (does anyone use that term anymore??) or a party or even a wedding or bridal shower.

Mary Todd Lincoln Courtin’ Cake

1 cup chopped almonds

2-1/4 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

6 large egg whites

confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 10-cup bundt pan and set aside. Place the almonds in a food processor and process until the almonds are very finely chopped and uniform in consistency. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Sift these ingredients another two times. Mix in the ground almonds and set aside. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 1-2 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beating after each addition until the mixture is smooth and uniform. Stir in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they stand in stiff, glossy peaks. Fold into the batter. Spoon into the prepared pan. Bake for about one hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven to a cake rack and cool for 10 minutes. Invert onto the cake rack to cool completely. Decorate with sifted confectioner’s flour. Makes one cake

German Apple Cake

German Apple Cake 

I was away recently, traveling through Germany and the Czech Republic, which means two things.

First, it was a great trip and I had a good time, learned a lot, saw a lot and met a lot of nice people.

Two, I gained weight.

Of course I gained weight. That’s what happens on a vacation.

Is it just me or does everyone add a few pounds this way?

I gained weight even though I walked probably 6-8 miles each day. Think of what would have happened if I taxi-ed all over the place!

But when you’re in a place that’s famous for its Apple Kuchen, schlag, dark beer and potatoes, well, you’re gonna gain weight. Especially if you like Apple Kuchen, schlag, dark beer and potatoes.

Which I do.

Okay, so I have to lose four pounds that got added on over 22 days.

But how do I do that when I felt absolutely compelled to try out recipes for Apple Kuchen?

Like the kind we had at a marvelous little coffee house in Potsdam.

The cake was tender and vaguely lemony, with a layer of soft baked sliced apples and crusted with mocha-brown crumbles of streusel.

Perfect.

Like this:

German Apple Cake

Streusel:

• 1/4 pound unsalted butter

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Place the sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and mix until well blended. Pour in the butter and blend it in. Let stand for 4-5 minutes, then crumble the mixture using your fingers. Set aside.

Cake:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel

• 2 large eggs

• 1 cup milk

• 2 tart apples (such as Granny Smith), peeled, cored and sliced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make the streusel and set it aside. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon peel in the bowl of an electric mixer. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and stir only to combine: do not overbeat. Turn the batter into the prepared cake pan. Top with the apple slices. Cover with the streusel. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove the outer ring from the pan and let the cake cool completely.

Makes one cake