Our favorite local cookbook author, renowned baker Dorie Greenspan’s new book makes an excellent gift for bakers and non-bakers alike! She’s shared a recipe with E List readers:

**Recipe from DORIE’S ANYTIME CAKES by Dorie Greenspan. Copyright © 2025 by Dorie Greenspan. Used with permission by Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins. All rights reserved. Illustrations by Nancy Pappas.

Apple Custard Cake / Makes 8 servings 

If you choose soft, juicy apples, like Gala or Golden Delicious, the darling of French bakers, the apples and the cake will be almost indistinguishable from one another. Choose a firmer apple, say a Honey Crisp or Pink Lady, and the slices will retain some of their firmness. The choice is yours.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 6 apples (about 1 ¾ pounds; 800 grams; see below), peeled 
• 3/4 cup (102 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
• 1 small orange or 1 clementine or tangerine (or a lemon, if you prefer)
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce; 28 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• Demerara or turbinado sugar for sprinkling (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

• Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F. 

• Coat an 81/2-inch loaf pan with baker’s spray or butter and flour the pan (tap out the excess flour), then run a piece of parchment over the bottom and up the two long sides of the pan, leaving enough of an overhang to use as lifters when the cake is baked

• If you’re using a knife for the apples, peel, core and slice them now.

• Working in a large bowl—eventually it will have to hold all the apples, too—whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together

• Put the sugar in a medium bowl and grate the orange (or lemon) zest over it. 

• Smush the sugar and zest together with your fingers until you catch the scent of citrus. 

• Drop the eggs into the bowl and whisk for 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and slightly thickened. (You can use an electric mixer for this job, if you’d like.)

• Whisk in the milk and vanilla, followed by the melted butter

• Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the flour and stir with a flexible spatula to blend. 

• Place the mandoline or other slicer across the top of the bowl and slice the apples 

into the batter. (Leave the apples whole to slice them. When you get to the core on the first side—you don’t want core or pits in the mix—turn the apple and continue slicing; turn the apple each time you come to the core and then discard the little rectangle of apple and core that remains.) Stop after every 2 apples to stir the mixture—stirring the apples in will give you space for more fruit. Continue until all of the apples are in and then, using the spatula, stir to coat the apples with batter.

• This will take a couple of minutes, and you’re not going to catch every slice—there are more apples than batter – but make your best effort.

• Using a large kitchen spoon, transfer the apples to the pan: spoon up some fruit, let the batter drain back into the bowl (don’t be too meticulous here), drop the slices into the pan 
• and use the spoon to even out the layer. Continue until all of the apples are in, then wiggle them with the spoon to fill the corners and even the top. 

• Pour in the remaining batter, jiggle the apples again and give the pan a few good raps against the counter to coax the batter into all the crevices. Sprinkle the top with demerara or turbinado sugar, if you’d like.

• Bake the cake for 30 minutes and then take a peek at it—if you think it’s getting too brown too quickly, tent it loosely with parchment or foil. The cake needs to bake for a total of 50 to 60 minutes—you’ll know it’s done when it’s set, is deeply golden brown and pulls away from the sides of the pan when you tug it ultra gently. 

• Transfer the pan to a rack and let the cake cool for at least 1 hour before unmolding.

• When you’re ready to lift the cake out of the pan, carefully run a table knife around the edges, then use the parchment to pull the cake out of the pan and onto a cutting board; peel away the paper from the sides of the cake and leave the bottom paper in place until you’re ready to serve. 

• The cake can be served when it’s still slightly warm, at room temperature or chilled—each temperature has its charm. Serve plain, like a snack cake, or top each slice with ice cream or whipped cream. If you’re a cake-for-breakfast type, you might want to griddle a thick slice in butter.