Apple-Filled Sour Cream Spice Cake, Living Room Update and a Bumble Sighting

Hey, it's The Yank from upstate New York where I am happy to report it is NOT SNOWING!!!!

The sun is shining!

Okay, that pic was from two years ago, we don't have pretty posies yet, but there is hope! Hello, and welcome to Thursdays with The Yankee!

First, the cake. 

 If you are new to us, you will find I am not known by any of the healthy names, unless Bossy New Yorker has become a new synonym for healthy eating! :)

I love baking and creating fun, sweet desserts to sprinkle in among healthy recipes, too. And this Sour Cream Spice Cake is absolutely, crumb-diddly-delicious.

It is an easy recipe for a homemade cake with an old-fashioned consistency that was lots of fun to work with. It creates tiny air bubbles (like an English muffin) so when I spooned and spread the apple pie filling (recipe below, and yes, it's easy, stop frowning!) the filling smoothed its liquidy self into all of these holes....

It was like an Earth Science lesson in liquidity/mobility.

For this cake, you simply dump all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until smooth, then bake at 350° for about 30-35 minutes in a 13" x 9" pan.  I expect it would be a little more in 8" rounds and less in 9" rounds. I'm really not sure, so DON'T DISAPPEAR and expect them to be perfect, okay? Scout's honor????

For cake:

2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Mix until smooth. Grease and flour 13 x 9 pan or two 8" round pans. Pour batter into pans, bake for about 30-35 minutes until top springs back when touched lightly with finger, or when a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.... it can have a few moist crumbs, but no liquidy center.

Photo-bombed by sunbeam!!!!!

Cool.

Apple Pie Filling:

3 large apples (I used Crispin, a personal Ruthy fave for baking!)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon or so Cinnamon
3/4 cup water

Peel, core and chop apples. Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon. Put apples, flour mix and 3/4 cup water into pan. Mix thoroughly, cover and heat over low/medium heat, stirring now and again while apples soften. Mix will thicken with heat. When apples are fork-tender, remove from heat, cool.

Slice oblong cake in half to make two thin layers:

(With round cakes, simply put one on a plate, spoon filling over layer, add top layer and frost) For oblong cake (13 x 9) spread 2/3 of the filling onto bottom layer,

Flip top back onto cake...

 and spread with icing then top with remaining apple filling. We debated on facebook which icing to use. I would have liked whipped cream, but was out of heavy cream. :( But the facebook vote went toward cream cheese icing, so we did that and I used the apple topping as a garnish.

If I forget to post the finished pic here, scold me, okay? I'm making the frosting now....

Serve chilled. This is a habit forming cake, I will tell you that!

And the living room project rages on as I work on editing books for next fall and winter....

Painting rejuvenates my brain: This was ceiling and walls done, painting the grillwork on window and dark wood trim...

And here is new look:

I love it... It's brighter, it's sunnier, the dark wood had grown kind of oppressive and the whole room looked gloomy.... so now (when money allows) we'll pull up the old carpet and have the 162 year old wood floor re-done and put a pretty country rug over it.

My goal was to bring this project in at a reasonable price, and with the floor, we'll be still reasonable. Paint-speckled, but reasonable!

And there was a BUMBLE SIGHTING in Western New York!

The youngest guy, "Finance Boy", came home from NYC for a week of golfing and hanging out and seeing country sky, trees, hearing birds and frogs and little kids. Oh, and to see his family, of course!

Why is he called "Bumble". Because he's the tallest of the tall, he's a throwback to some very tall, big ancestors and he always gets to put the star or angel on the tree because he doesn't need a chair!!!

"Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" had an abominable snowman, that got called "Bumble". And so Lukie became our Bumble.

And here is with with a photo op, holding "Jasper" the kitty now famous in the book bearing his name: "The Hunt For Jasper the Kitty" one of The Mighty Finn adventures!

We had the most fun week ever, hanging out with Lukie, making lots of fun food, grilling outside because spring has arrived in upstate! We were a little skeptical for a while, and we'll have a stern talking to for any stinkin' groundhog we see this summer, because the rodent was wrong, wrong, 1000 times wrong in this neck of the woods, but if he was talking West Coast spring, then he got it right!

It's all in the perspective, I guess!

Looking forward to sharing one of Gladys Bermeo's recipes next week, one that will be featured in Home on the Range.... so I want you guys to test it and see if you love it as much as I do! This will be one of Isabo's recipes in the Double S Ranch second book... and no smart person argues with Isabo.

Because she's that smart and that wise.

So what kind of cook are you? Or do you run screaming from the kitchen and order out, because I actually have tons of respect for people who do that!

GO YOU!!!!!

Multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne is totally loving life right now. She's living her dream, writing sweet, delightful stories, the kind of stories she loves to read, and she's thrilled that readers feel the same way! The author of over thirty books, you can find her on facebook as Ruth Logan Herne, her website ruthloganherne.com and on twitter @RuthLoganHerne... She's here every Thursday, even when they CHANGE THE LOCKS!!!! and she shows up daily in Seekerville, a great blog with wonderful authors who love to chat with readers and aspiring writers... And since Ruthy is a talker (sigh....) she'd love to chat with you!

And this just out at bookstores, Walmarts and department stores near you!

Link to Amazon for Toss the Bouquet!

A fun three-for-one collection of bridal stories, beginning with Ruthy's "All Dressed Up in Love", a wonderful romance of second chances, new beginnings and embracing the joys of life... and Elena's Bridal, a quaint, wonderful bridal store set in Old City, Philadelphia.

And maybe someday Ruthy will show you the picture of her running up the "Rocky" steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art!!!! (Or not....)