Passover Apple Cake With Candied Nut Topping

blucoat's Note:

This moist & delicious pareve cake recipe is from Arthur Schwartz's cookbook, "Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited". Use use Golden Delicious or Crispin apples or another kind that keep its shape when cooked. The cake improves with age. Keep the cake in its dish, covered tightly with plastic, and the next day the topping will have become a moist, candy-like coating.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

Topping

• ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts or ½ cup pecans
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or a combination of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and ginger)

Cake

• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1⁄3; cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup matzo cake meal
• 5 medium apples , peeled, cored, halved, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 5 cups)
• 1⁄3; cup raisins (optional)

Directions:

1. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350°F Lightly oil an 8-inch-square glass baking dish.
2. To prepare the topping, mix together the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.
3. To prepare the cake batter, in a bowl, with a hand-held electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until well mixed. Beat in the sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until the mixture is thick and foamy. Beat in the oil, adding it in a steady stream. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the spatula, stir in the matzo cake meal, blending well.
4. Pour half of the batter mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle about half the topping mixture evenly over the batter. Top with half the apples and all the raisins. Scrape the remaining half of the batter over the apples, spreading it out to cover the apples. Arrange the remaining apples on top of the batter. Sprinkle evenly with the remaining topping mixture.
5. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the sides of the cake pull away very slightly from the baking dish and the topping has begun to caramelize. (A cake tester is not reliable. It will not come out clean due to the moist richness of this cake.) Let sit in the baking dish for several hours until completely cool before cutting into serving portions.