By Geila Bernstein

Who’s Allie? She’s the woman who penned this recipe for the Teaneck Jewish Community Cookbook some 30 years ago. I was looking for a good pareve dessert to serve for the High Holidays and I stumbled upon this recipe. It was for your classic rustic apple cake, easy to prepare, nothing too fancy and simply delicious. But after glancing at the ingredients, I realized there was something missing. She had omitted the eggs. I found her number and phoned her, and she said, “Oh, yea! I forgot to add them.” Once I did, the cake was heaven–moist, dense, and delicious. And it’s good enough to pass off as dairy, which is the real hallmark of a great pareve cake. Inelegant as it may look, this humble cake is the perfect ending to the most sophisticated meal–and the ultimate way to break a fast.

Quick Tip: Bake this ahead of time since it keeps.

Tool needed: Tube pan

Ingredients:
5 apples, preferably Granny Smith, peeled, cored and sliced
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ cup raisins or dried cranberries
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup oil
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup sugar
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Oil the tube pan.
3. Mix together apples, raisins, cinnamon and sugar, and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.
5. Add the vanilla, eggs, oil and orange juice to the dry ingredients. Don’t be surprised if the batter is runny. It should be very thin.
6. Start pouring in a layer of batter into the pan, then place a layer of apples, and alternate, culminating with a layer of batter on top.
7. Bake for 2 hour and 20 minutes. Check every ½ hour. If the top is getting too brown cover loosely with foil. It’s ready when a wooden skewer comes out clean. Try to test without skewering fruit since the fruit will always come out wet.
8. 8. Serves 14-16