In My Own Sweet Thyme...

Apfelkuchen mit Streuseln

German Apple Cake with Streusel

I grew up with amazing German grandparents that lived a 5 minute car-ride from our house. When I finally got old enough to ride my bike across the highway and to their place, we moved. Well, its not THAT sad...we moved 5 miles away onto a very tiny farm. There are many, many great meals that we have shared over the years at my Grandparents house (bei meine Oma und Opa hause)

I always asked my Oma for recipes, some in which she was delighted to share and others she refused. My favorite apple cake, she really won't share! That's okay though, I always appreciate going over to her house and having this special treat. Now that I am a married woman, I decided to attempt finding a recipe that would match my grandmothers cake. I came up with the idea to look at pictures on google images to see what one looked moist, beautiful and delicious. Sadly, there weren't any that made my mouth water, until I came across Greenderella.com. Her recipe is all in metric system, so I had to go out and perchase a scale. She also used soy milk, wheat flour, and corn starch. I decided to modify it to my own liking and this is the recipe that I have come up with. I have done 5 trial runs, in which 4 came out amazing. What happened with one of these trials you may ask? Well, I got a little to confident in making this gorgeous cake and didn't put a toothpick in the center to see if it was done after the suggested 40 minutes that Greenderella.com states it takes to bake, so the cake was a wet mess in the center. Thank Heaven's we did not have guests coming over. I was heartbroken and learned my lesson!

Enough chatter, here is the recipe!

GATHER:

Batter:

1 stick of butter, softened slightly

2/3 cups white sugar

1 packet vanilla sugar (Dr. Oetker....withouth this don't attempt cake)

2 eggs

pinch o' salt

4 drops of lemon aroma (or fresh lemon juice)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup of cornstarch (I sometimes just use extra 1/2 cup flour if I don't have cornstarch)

2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp milk

3 medium apples, sliced thin and kept together to fan out on top of batter

Struesel:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup white or brown sugar (I have done both, I prefer with brown though)

1 packet vanilla sugar (Dr. Oetker)

1 stick of butter, softened

TO DO:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla sugar.

(Quick picture to show you what to look for in supermarket. I got mine at Russian market, I have seen it at German markets and Spanish markets that carry European things as well.)

3. Add in eggs, one at a time.

4. Add salt, lemon aroma, flour, baking powder and cornstarch. The batter will be quite thick and dry.

5. Add milk.

6. Cut your apples, keeping them together to fan out over the batter.

7. Grease a 10 inch spring form pan, smooth the batter onto the bottom so it is even. It will not be a thick layer, don't worry once all the layers are put together you'll be happy its not.