Okay, now I know this isn’t a glamour cake photo-wise, but it’s wonderful taste makes it a thing of beauty to look at!!  And a pile of crumbles is always beautiful to me!

I had to make my cake strips on the fly at the last second, as I totally forgot about them, and then I had to guess at how many paper towells and how wet they should be, but it was great fun to do!

With my crumbles, I didn’t have to form 1/4” pieces, I had to break-up into them, as mine were quite clumpy, so it was a bit easier—I had to form them once for another crumb cake, and that was a bit of a pain.

For the apples, I used the called-for weight plus 1 slice on one cake, and plus 3 slices on the other cake.  They are a single layer and didn’t overlap, but I didn’t want to use too many apples.  I was going to add a double layer to one cake, but when I mentioned it to the hub and he found out it was a Rose cake, he said to leave it alone—Rose knows what she’s doing!!!  I tell you, this man LOVES Rose’s cakes!

I was going to try the fake vanilla trick, but it was only 1/2 price of the organic real stuff, and that wasn’t enough savings for me to justify it, plus they only had McCormick, and not the ‘Cook’s Illustrated’-recommended Gold Medal.

This was the first time I used a springform pan!  Loved it!

Also, I get eggs from a woman here at work whose father has chickens.  I weighed the 4 whites separately, and they came to 120g—perfect!  Then I added the 4 yolks—and that brought them to 199g!  Not only are they the best tasting eggs, but they are just baking-perfect size and white-to-yolk ratio!

Also, I used all three test methods for the cake—It passe the first two—clean toothpick and springing back, but the internal temp was only 200.  Waited 5 minutes and it was 208.  The cakes are beautiful and perfect!  Tomorrow I’m bringing one to work for a little computer training session, and on Thursday, I’m sending some to a friend of mine who used to work here.

Will report back!!!!!

Anne, your cakes look great to me.  I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but your pictures make me want to.  Very lucky co-workers.  I always bring in samples or leftovers of what I am baking into work and they love it.  I always use real vanilla extract when I bake.  I figure that if I am going to invest the time to make something homemade, I want to use the best ingredients that I can get.  Real vanilla beats the artificial stuff hands down.  Lucky you to have access to farm fresh eggs.  I think that they taste better too.

Your cakes look absolutely delicious! Can I come to your computer training session?????

That looks sooo delicious!  Just perfect.  I love this cake, and now that I see yours I’m realizing I haven’t made it in a while…

Loved reading your write up, you’re so lucky to get those good eggs. If I remember correctly, that gold medal vanilla is a regional brand (not positive though). I also have read that they derive artificial vanilla from petroleum—this was in the book about deconstructing the twinkie, but I may be remembering that wrong! This really is a delicious cake and yours looks wonderful!

One more cake to add to the list now!  Beautiful picture, too.  Anne (still think of you as rose the old english sheepdog!), everyone is right, you have the luckiest co-workers.  They must love working with you!

Thaks everyone!!! 

Liza, this cake is awesome.  Really flavorful, yet really mellow.  It’s amazing.  I took the advice of one member who said it gets better after a few days and, rather than freezing it after making in on Sunday, left it in the fridge unti today.

Yes, Rozanne, please do come t the training session!  The more the merrier…and, speaking of more…I just learned that one of the women who I really like will be having a baby in September (obviously, I don’t see her much), so I have another cake to plan!!!

Thanks, Matthew, for the gold medal info!  I had sort of half decided to bag the cheap vanilla experiment anyway, as someone had mentioned cakes don’t get to the “vanilla cook-off temperature” anyway.  And what don’t they get from petroleum anymore that we have to eat???  ** Rant ***

Loopy, I feel like I’m the lucky one to have so many co-workers that there are enough that I can be friendly with for me to have baking excluses without looking too terribly flakey!

I’ll let you all know if everyone like it!!  Thanks again for all the kind words!

Did they love it?  Is it a Rose cake?

Well, then, we have our answer!!!

Sending some along with a co-worker for a friend of mine that she is having lunch with ...  my favorite cake exchanger!!  Can’t wait to hear her review!

Your cake looks delicious! This is the type of cake we prefer…something with fruit to justify eating it   I will definitely be making this as soon as I buy the springform pan.

Thank you for sharing those great pictures

Thanks!  It’s a really yummy cake!

I got this springform.  It was the one recommended by Cook’s Illustrated, and I love it.  I’m sure, in the end, one is as good as another!

Oh great! Thank you! Are you a CI fan too? Me too..that is why I mentioned I thought I had stocked my kitchen already..I buy almost everything they recommend.

I have their Baking Illustrated. What do you think of it?

I browsed the quick breads and thought there wan’t enough sugar in the recipes for my husband’s taste.

Also, I made their apple crisp and didn’t like it..the juice was too watery and the mix of apples was too tart.

For crisps I swear by Deborah Madison

Cake looks great and tempting, Anne!

Thanks, CRenee!

Missyjean—I get random editions of CI, although one woman at work is now bringnig me her issues when she’s done with them.  I thought they were the last word until Rose.  Now I’m a complete Rose junky.  When I mentioned I was making this cake, one person asked, “Oh the one from [whatever book],” and I’m like, “Are you kidding?  It’s all Rose all the time!”  But I know CI is great and they do a great job. I made their crumb cake from their holiday baking, and it was great.  I thought of running the crumbles through my juicer (which is also an extruder like a pasta maker) and cooking them as little nubbins or twigs to munch on.

Oh… Nice cake, Anne!

yum. it looks great and sounds great too!

Thanks so much!  Well, my favorite cake-exchanger and her hub had theirs yesterday and there were raves all around.  The really great news is that she wasn’t even going to have any becuase she just got back from vacation and doesn’t even like walnuts that much.  Not only did she “gobble hers up,” I think she was more enthusiastic about this cake than any other I’ve made.

So, people:  MAKE THIS CAKE! You will not regret it.  Note that it is especially awesome cold from the fridge.