Helen’s Golden Apple Cake

My Mother’s Recipe Books

One of the most precious things that I have are the recipe books I received from my mother, Helen Brightwell. They aren’t fancy but they have the BEST recipes in them. She wrote out many of the recipes in her beautiful cursive writing while others she cut out of magazines and newsletters. Some recipes have relatives names on them but most of them are ones my mom collected and changed up to make them her own. Almost every recipe has a stain on it from when she was cooking so I know that these recipes are well tested. One recipe that I had forgotten about but recently rediscovered is Helen’s Golden Apple Cake.

Rediscovering Golden Apple Cake

This cake was an accidental find. I was looking for another recipe and then I stumbled across this one. It looked good, and so Robby and I decided to make it. The first thing that we noticed was that some of the sizes of packages were out of date but thankfully mom wrote the ounces needed for each ingredient so we were able to adjust. The most difficult part of the recipe is peeling and grating the 2 cups of apples. We found that 4 good size apples make 2 cups of shredded apples and the easiest way to grate them is with a food processor. Of course, I don’t remember my mom having a food processor back in the day so I am sure she grated those apples by hand. After preparing the apples, everything else is just mixing, baking, smelling the deliciousness, spreading the frosting and of course eating and eating and eating. (Did I say eating enough times?) It is truly an amazing cake and you can just taste the old fashioned flavors. With walnuts, apples, maple, and cinnamon it makes the perfect holiday cake. I hope your family enjoys it as much as we do.

Helen’s Golden Apple Cake

8 ounces of crushed pineapple

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of oil

3 eggs

2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons each of baking soda, cinnamon, and vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups of shredded golden delicious apples

3/4 cup of chopped walnuts

Drain pineapple thoroughly and reserve 2 tablespoons of the syrup for the icing. Combine all ingredients (except reserved pineapple juice) in a mixer and mix well. Scrape sides to make sure all is mixed in. Pour into 2 9″ greased and floured round cake pans and bake in a 350-degree oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes then turn cakes onto a cake rack and cool completely. When cooled, frost between layers and on top of cake with maple frosting.

Maple Frosting

3 ounces softened cream cheese

2 Tablespoons of softened butter (unsalted)

1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Blend these ingredients until fluffy and then add

2 Tablespoons of reserved pineapple syrup

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 teaspoon of maple extract

A dash of salt

Mix well, and if necessary add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more of powdered sugar to make frosting easy to spread. (I did not add any powdered sugar, but mom put that in the recipe, so I did too!)