Therapy

I love the fall. I love the trees, I love the weather, I love the serenity of it all. I also love the activities and the schedule, structured and "full" as it is. After a relatively unscheduled summer, it is always nice to get back into the swing of things and have a list of things to accomplish and feel good about.

We had our first swim meet of the season yesterday. It was a particularly long day, because my oldest had practice before the meet and then we had a clinic for the little ones, the team picture, and lunch (which I helped organize) - all before the actual meet even started. Then there was the 4 hour meet keeping 4 (sometimes 6) swimmers in their events, heats and lanes, making sure I saw them all swim and cheering them on when they dropped time. Plus the baby was with me, on my hip, going everywhere I went. We were all exhausted by the time we got home at 6pm.

Waking up this morning, splitting church into two shifts - husband took the little ones early, I am taking the older ones tonight, enabled me to have some blessed minutes to myself. So I indulged in one of my favorite therapies - baking a cake. Do we need a cake sitting around here all tasty and yummy asking to be eaten? Of course not, but there is something very calming and therapeutic about making a cake from scratch. I relied on a tried and true recipe from an older Southern Living Christmas cookbook - Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze. The thought of being able to use up the last of the apples we picked last month (they've lasted this long!) and making something that fit into the "fall" feeling was particularly satisfying.

So I put on my Jim Brickman cd, got out my Kitchen Aid and got to work chopping apples, mixing oil and sugar and planning when I was going to run to the store to get the brown sugar for the glaze, because of course we didn't have any. Am I the only person this happens to? Luckily it worked out. I have made this cake many times with and without the nuts. It can be made in the small, mini-loaf pans and given away as teacher gifts or neighbor gifts and is better than any store bought cake I've found. This time though, I selfishly made it in it's original vessel - the Bundt pan - all the better for the glaze to drip down - and we are going to eat the whole thing ourselves. ...K

Hopefully, I won't get in trouble posting the recipe. It comes out of Southern Living's Our Best Christmas Recipes copyright 1994.

Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups peeled, finely chopped cooking apple
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Brown Sugar Glaze

Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; add to sugar mixture, beating well. Stir in apple and pecans.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 12-cup Bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack. Drizzle Brown Sugar Glaze over cake.

Brown Sugar Glaze
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons evaporated milk or heavy cream

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan; cook over high heat, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until butter melts. Cool to lukewarm.