In honor of Mother’s Day, I wanted to share a recipe, and a story, that makes me think of my mom. 

Something you may not know about Theresa is that back in the day, she was a BIG fan of treating herself to a McDonald’s fountain Diet Coke (if you know, you know) fries, and every once in a while a hot apple pie. In her words "what's the point of working out - if you can't treat yourself once in a while!" I completely agree.

Last year, I was trying to use up the 20+ apples I had in my refrigerator and landed on a baking recipe with “easy” in the title. As promised, the recipe was easy and, immediately, the first bite took me back to opening that little red box and sharing a hot apple pie with my mom.

Inspired by the Easy-As-Pie Apple Cake Recipe, I decreased the amount of sugar, swapped white sugar for brown, added golden raisins, and was more generous with the cinnamon and nutmeg. If you don’t have nutmeg on hand, I beg you to go get some for this recipe – it’s the key ingredient.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Ingredients

• 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour, more as needed
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter (1/2 stick), softened*
• ½ c brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• 2 c diced apples (from about 2 apples)
• ½ c golden raisins
• ½ c toasted pecans, chopped 

Directions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-inch cake pan (anything with high sides will work, metal or glass)
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside
• In a large bowl with a handheld mixer (or a stand mixer if you have one) cream the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg; add the egg and mix until smooth
• With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture until no pockets of flour are visible
• Using a spatula, gold in the apples, golden raisins, and nuts
• Spread batter into pan, evenly
• Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes (possibly more for a glass dish)
• Let cool 10 minutes before serving; enjoy warm with a cup of coffee or all by itself

*If you don’t have time to soften butter, you can soften it with this easy microwave trick in about 10 minutes.