Gooey Goodness...Wednesday?! Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze

This past weekend, we celebrated Topher's birthday (and of course Memorial Day! Thank you veterans and active military!) and his only request:

Apple Cake.

I actually really dislike this cake, as I don't really like fruit cakes or pies, but I know how much the hubsy does, so I was happy to oblige.  I got this recipe from a dear friend, Claire, and I (and Topher's tummy) can't thank her enough!

On a side note, actually good birthday cake TO ME is buttery yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

But really, all I really want is the ice cream and frosting.  Who needs CAKE?

Husbands, I guess.

Anyway, apple cake.

Your needed ingredients:

Start with combining the dry ingredients:

then add the orange juice:

next up are the eggs:

then it's time to combine all:

It's a nice, thick dough/batter:

You add nuts of any variety- I had pecans on hand, so in they went:

Mmm...cake batter...

The most labor intensive part of this cake starts with these:

Requires a husband who loves peeling:

And has you tsk-tsk-tsking until you get apples like this:

 While your husband peels, you can make the cinnamon sugar mix:

 Take a few minutes and slice the apples, then pour into the cinnamon sugar mixture:

And combine until you get this yumminess.

Finally, it's time to layer in preparation for baking. Start with a layer of batter...

then add apples...

Repeat three times, alternating batter-apples-batter-apples-batter-apples:

Sprinkle some brown sugar on top...

And bake for a really long time, until apples are very browned:

After it's cooled, flip it over:

And prepare the caramel glaze that you didn't photograph.  It's easy: half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of butter and two tablespoons milk.  Boil. Cool.

Then...

POUR.

DRIZZLE.

LICK.

Then serve to in laws and husband...

Oh, and then lament how your cheesecake went from this:

to this when you tried to cook just a bit more because the middle jiggled a little bit.

Shit.

Cheesecake will not defeat me. Check back in a few weeks for a SUCCESS. I hope.

APPLE CAKE

3 cups flour

2.5 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/3 cup orange juice

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts

_________

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbs. cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

6 apples, sliced and peeled

DIRECTIONS:  Mix the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients until well blended.  Mix the apples/sugar/cinnamon mixture in separate bowl.  Grease and flour 9 inch tube pan.  Alternate layers of batter and apples (3 layers each). Begin with batter and end with apples.  Sprinkle top of apples with brown sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours.

What's your birthday cake of choice?