My New Favorite Dessert Recipe: Cranberry & Apple Cake

This recipe is one that I actually made back in December, but I am finally getting around to posting it. Trust me though, the time it took me to post it has NOTHING to do with the quality of the recipe.

Ina Garten's Easy Cranberry & Apple Cake is actually probably one of my favorite things I made in all of 2010! That's high praise, coming from me!

I found the recipe while browsing through a cookbook that my mom received as a gift for Christmas. I wasn't super impressed with the majority of the cookbook but this particular recipe definitely caught my eye. I'm so glad I made it, because it's amazing and SO easy! Essentially it's just pouring a batter on top of some lightly sweetened fruit....Ina is right: "How easy is that?!" :)

It's actually more like a cross between a cobbler and a pie than it is a cake, but regardless it's awesome. You can't go wrong with the delicious combo of tart cranberries, apple and sweet "cake".

I served the cake to a whole bunch of my family over the holidays and therefore didn't remember to get a photo of a slice, so this photo from the cookbook will have to do...

easy cranberry & apple cake
 


Source: How Easy is That by Ina Garten

Serves 6 to 8
 


12 ounces fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for stems


1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced


½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed


1 tablespoon grated orange zest (2 oranges)


¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice


1 & 1⁄8 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided


2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature


1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar


¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled


1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


¼ cup sour cream


1 cup all-purpose flour


¼ teaspoon kosher salt
 


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
 


Combine the cranberries, apple, brown sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
 


In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. With the mixer on medium, add 1 cup of the granulated sugar, the butter, vanilla, and sour cream and beat just until combined. On low speed, slowly add the flour and salt.
 


Pour the fruit mixture evenly into a 10-inch glass pie plate. Pour the batter over the fruit, covering it completely. Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and 1⁄8 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle it over the batter.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and the fruit is bubbling around the edges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sister-in-Laws, Babies & Easy Apple Crisp

Sorry I've been MIA the past few days! We've been busy bees with a houseguest, the arrival of a friend's new baby and the celebration of a friend's daughter's 1st birthday. Here we go with a little {long} recap:

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday night we had a houseguest: my sister-in-law (a.k.a. Alex's sister)!!

She was passing through our part of Texas on her way to meet up with her boyfriend in San Antonio so she stopped in for the night. It was a quick visit but it was a lot of fun to catch up with her. She lived with me last summer when Alex was deployed and interned at my job so we have become close.

She's also a loyal Cupcakes & Combat Boots reader so she insisted that I take a picture of her to make it on the blog. In turn, I insisted that if this was to happen, it needed to be a photo of her eating. She agreed to my terms. :)

Chomp!

And yes, we ate dinner on the couch, even with a houseguest. We're casual like that. ;-)

So what did we eat? Well, it's a dish that's been seen on Cupcakes & Combat Boots before but it's certainly worth repeating.

Cajun Chicken Ranch Sandwiches

w/ sweet potato oven fries

Yummmmm. The flavors just go together so well!

As a military-related side note, my sister-in-law's boyfriend is also in the Army and he is deploying to Afghanistan next week. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he sets off on this journey. Also, please pray for peace for Andrea that she can remain calm during this deployment (it's the first she's had to deal with, besides her brother's of course) and that it goes by quickly.

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THURSDAY:

One of my very good friends, Connie, had her baby on Wednesday evening (!!!) so on Thursday night we headed out to the hospital to visit her and meet little Max.

Hubs with Max

Me with Max...he was so awake and alert...I was shocked!

Look at that big yawn! He's so adorable!

So since we had to drive 45 minutes each way to go visit Max & Connie, we were planning on just grabbing dinner along the way somewhere. When we spotted a Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburger we knew that was where we were eating.

We had both had Freddy's before in Wichita, KS (which is where the Hubs is from and, incidentally where the Freddy's chain began) and loved it.

I didn't take any photos of our dinner, but just trust me, if you ever have a chance to eat at Freddy's DO IT. It's a retro-esque burger & custard joint that specializes in super-thin "steak burgers" and delicious custard treats. The shoestring french fries are also TO DIE FOR.

I enjoyed a burger, fries, and a mini-Reese's concrete {basically a Blizzard by a different name}. It was sooooooooooo good and so absolutely worth the splurge in calories/fat/etc.

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Friday night we went to a 1st birthday party for our friend's daughter but I didn't take any photos. They served hot dogs, chips & queso, potato salad, etc. It was a fun night but I was so very tired by the end of the night.

SATURDAY:

Saturday night we had another repeat dinner while hanging around the house watching football.

Seared Skirt Steak with Balsamic Cherry Tomatoes (click link for recipe from Men's Health)

w/ Roasted Potato Wedges

{I'm so annoyed that it's getting dark sooner at night now. It makes it almost impossible for me to get good natural light photos since we are post-7pm dinner eaters usually.}

We really like this recipe. It's easy, quick and super tasty. We had a few "issues" while cooking it tonight though so it wasn't our best work. ;-) The meat was extremely undercooked when we cut into it so we tried to cook it a little more but it ended up being rather tough. Also, we almost smoked ourselves out of the kitchen at one point...beware the searing! :)

For the roasted potato wedges I just coated yellow-skinned potato wedges in olive oil and then sprinkled with kosher salt & pepper. Then I spread them out on a rack placed on top of a baking sheet. Baked for 20 minutes at 425 degrees until crispy and browned. They were really good!

Then for dessert, I made an Apple Crisp!

We had a sack of little baby Gala apples in our fridge so I figured I'd use some of them up in a delicious, fall dessert!

Gracie at Girl Meets Health posted the recipe for this apple crisp earlier this week and she swore it was amazing so I decided to give it a whirl.
She was absolutely right! It was SO good! The best part though was how stinkin' easy it was to make. I seriously whipped this up in 10 minutes and then all I had to do was wait for it to bake. That's dangerous because now I'm going to want apple crisp all the time and I'll know that it's not hard to get it! Uh oh...

I'm posting the recipe the below with my slight alterations but I basically followed it exactly.

Easy Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

• 4 apples, peeled and sliced {I used 6 small apples and cut them into small chunks, instead of slicing. I also left the peel on because I like it.}
• lemon juice {juice from 1 lemon}
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 stick cold butter, cut into tiny pieces
• 3/4 cup old fashioned oats

Preheat the oven to 375 and spray a shallow pan (I used a square pan) with cooking spray. Spread out the apples evenly along the bottom of the pan and sprinkle the lemon juice on top.

In a large bowl, combine all the rest of the ingredients and use your hands to work in the butter. In the end, you should have tiny pieces of butter throughout. You still want some chunks for optimal streusel.

Spread the streusel on top of the apples and bake for about 25 minutes {35 minutes for mine}. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Sausage Hogies, Soupy Pie and Peek-a-Boo

Last night we went to a friend's house for a little get together. It always seems like we see our friends a lot less over the summer months because everyone is away on trips at different times.

{This also has a lot to do with the fact ALL of my group of friends are teachers...except me. So they all have these glorious summer breaks where they can take 2 week long trips and such while poor little old me is stuck at home working all summer. HMPH!}

Point being, we were long overdue for a good old fashioned get together! It was so great to spend some time with them!

The hosts served a delicious spread of food that consisted of sausage hoagies with peppers & onions, salad with ranch dressing {Ohhh how I love ranch dressing}, and a cold {and mayo-less!} potato salad with olives, tomatoes and lots of other yummy things.


Great dinner! I loved my sausage hoagie and asked myself "Why haven't I ever made sausage hoagies?!?" as I was eating it. So easy and so good!

A delicious dinner was topped off with some yummy desserts, my favorite of which was an Almond Berry Cheesecake Tart that my friend Lindsey brought. Just look how beautiful it was...


YUM.

I made a dessert too but my dessert didn't have anything on the tart! When I was trying to figure out what to bring I knew it would have to be something simple that I could prep the night before the party since I had to work all day on Friday.

As I was eating my favorite greek yogurt for breakfast the other day {which by the way is Stonyfield Farm Oikos} I saw a recipe for Frozen Margarita Pie on the container that seemed yummy and easy. I made it on Thursday night and froze it overnight.

It's nothing earth-shattering but it was quite yummy! I definitely advise letting the pie thaw a bit before trying to cut into it though because ours was frozen solid. Then when we let it thaw we left it out a little too long so then it kind of turned soupy. Oh well, it was still good! {Scroll down to the bottom for the recipe}

The rest of the night was spent playing with this little cutie...
Playing peek-a-boo with the tablecloth. I seriously can't get enough of babies! I'm so glad my friends are producing LOTS of them so I have lots of them to play with! ;-)

I also enjoyed a few cocktails throughout the night made with this:

Have you heard of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka? I had heard a lot of good things about it so I bought some and tried it last night for the first time. Two thumbs up!! It really does taste like sweet tea.

I think my favorite way to drink it was mixed with club soda and lemon juice but I also enjoyed it mixed with lemonade.

FROZEN MARGARITA PIE
From the Stonyfield Farm Oikos yogurt container

Prepared graham cracker crust
8 oz package of reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarita mix
3 Tablespoons lime juice
1 cup Oikos 0% Vanilla greek yogurt

Beat cream cheese in a stand mixer until soft and smooth. Add sugar, margarita mix, and lime juice and mix well. Add yogurt and mix until just blended. Pour into the crust and freeze overnight.

Ashley's Notes: I also added 2 drops of green food coloring to give the pie a more "margarita" look. Also, don't forget to let the pie thaw for about 20-30 minutes before serving.

What's your favorite mixed drink? Mine would be Raspberry Mojitos but the Sweet Tea Vodka & Club Soda is a close second I think!