Did You Know....

Did you know that just about everyday has some kind of food celebration to go with it? It's quite amazing really and a little funny too. So I though one of the things that I would like to do this year is celebrate the food holidays (the ones that I can). And share them with you along with the recipes that I'm using.
So today January 1st is Apple Gifting Day.
Now, I am not going to gift a bag of apples to anyone (that would be kinda strange) so I decided to make something with apples and gift that.
So I made Caramel Apple Cake with Caramel Topping from The Lady & Sons cookbook. Let me tell you this cake is amazing. It is very RICH! So if you do decide to make it (and I would highly recommend that you do) cut the pieces small!
What I'm going to do is give you the recipe just as it's printed in the book and then I'm going to tell you what I will do different next time (and OH YES there will be a next time). Then once I have made it again with my new changes I will post again and let you know how the changes worked out.
OK so here is the recipe and the pictures...



Caramel Apple Cake with Caramel Topping By Paula Deen

2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (next time I will double the walnuts and leave them in bigger pieces)
2 1/2 cups diced apples, canned or fresh (I used fresh apples sliced pretty thin)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together sugar, eggs, and oil. Add flour; mix together until well blended. Blend in vanilla. Stir in nuts and diced apples. Spread into a lightly greased and floured 13 x 9-inch baking dish; bake for 45 to 60 minutes (mine took almost the entire 60 minutes). Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. When cake is done, punch holes in it with a knife and pour topping over. (When I took the cake out of the oven the toothpick was clean but the cake did not look done, so I was a little nervous. But the cake was done and tasted amazing)

Caramel Topping
3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter (this is a Paula Deen recipe after all)
2 cups brown sugar (Packed)
1/4 cup milk (I only use whole milk when I bake)

Heat all ingredients together over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Let boil for about 2 minutes. Pour over warm cake. (I stared making the topping about 15 minutes before the cake was done, next time I'll probably start about 20 minutes. I let this set awhile before cutting it as I think it would have made a huge mess if I had cut it right away. I gave the caramel a chance to soak down into the cake. So I would recommend making this in the early afternoon if you were going to serve it in the evening)


Now the gifting part... I'm going to be taking about half the cake to church with me tomorrow and "gifting" it to my best friend and her family. I hope they enjoy it as much as we did!

As a side note my oldest son, Tyler, suggested that this be served with vanilla ice cream.
HHHMMM I'm thinking he may be on to something there.

I made a few other very yummy things today... homemade chicken noodle soup and homemade french bread. So stay tuned for those recipes and pictures coming soon!