Aunt Mae's Apple Cake

One of my favorite things about recipes handed down through families is how those old recipe cards assume you have a clue. For real. Our grandparents made the assumption that we would know what to do with a list of ingredients and three vague steps. Which, maybe. It depends on if our parents taught us.

Hahahahahalolomg.

My mom didn't teach me anything. She couldn't boil hot dogs without burning something.

And yet! I still managed to survive this!

That's my Aunt (in-law) Teresa's Aunt Mae's recipe (I'd figure out what being the aunt of an aunt-in-law turns into, but LAZY). I totally stole it from a Facebook post because every once in a while, Facebook serves a purpose, like giving me a recipe to use up some of the apples the girls picked.

The girls LOVED this cake because it was super gooey and moist and filled with apples.

I'm just glad I didn't totally ruin it.

Aunt Mae's Apple Cake

Cake ingredients
1 cup cooking oil (vegetable oil, I'm guessing)
2 cups sugar (let's go with granulated sugar)
3 eggs
2 cups self-rising flour (all-purpose worked fine for me)
3 teaspoons baking powder (added because I used all-purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt (added because of the all-purpose flour substitution)
3 cups chopped fresh apples
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Frosting-ish Topping (runnier than a frosting, but thicker than a glaze)
1 cup sugar (granulated, again, I think)
1 tablespoon white syrup (My guess was white corn syrup. It seems to have worked.)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 stick butter (she said margarine, but I ignored her *lalalala*)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon soda

Cake instructions (I mean, who needs instructions? NOT AUNT MAE.)

1. Dry ingredients go together and get whisked. That would be the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

2. Other cake ingredients get mixed together in a separate bowl. That would be the vegetable oil, eggs, and sugar.

3. Mix the moist ingredients with the dry ingredients. It should come out pretty thick - the moisture from the apples is going to take care of that, so don't sweat it.

4. Fold in the apples, raisins, and nuts.

5. Grease and flour a 9" x 13" baking pan. Bake the cake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Set aside to cool while you make the topping.

Topping Instructions

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.

2. Add the sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the vanilla and baking soda, stir quickly, and remove from heat. By the way, Mae didn't mention this, but when you add baking soda to this type of mixture, it quickly boils up and tries to explode out of the pan. That's why you're removing it from the heat right after adding it.

4. Place the topping in a medium mixing bowl and mix at high speed until it thickens some more. It took me about 5 minutes of mixing to be happy with it.

5. Pour over the cake.

6. Allow it to cool a bit and then ZOMG IT IS SO GOOD WARM.