PAREVE APPLE-WALNUT CAKE

Makes 1 10-inch tube cake

            Cake exactly like this, chock full of apples and flavored with cinnamon and vanilla, is still sold in some Brooklyn kosher bakeries, usually baked in sheets and sold by the pound. If you ask the baker, he might tell you it is Austro-Hungarian. It was presented to me as originally German when I was first given the recipe more than 30 years ago. It is a very moist cake that will keep for a week at room temperature, covered loosely with foil. If the outside dries out slightly, that's all the better. The crusty outside is delicious. (If you cover the cake with plastic, or put it under a cake dome, the crust will soften.) An old-fashioned removable bottom aluminum tube pan promotes a good crust, and the cake will un-mold with its crustiest side up. If you don't have this old-fashioned pan, a bundt pan produces a more decorative shape, but the crusty top becomes the bottom when the cake is unmolded. It's your choice. Either type of pan is fine, as long as it holds 12 cups. Warning: A heavily articulated bundt pan is not good for this cake. The plainer the design, the easier it is to unmold. When using a pan made of dark metal, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees and/or the time. Do not count on a non-stick pan to release easily. It still needs to be lubricated with solid shortening.

Parve margarine for greasing the pan

3 cups flour (measured by spooning the flour into the measuring cup and leveling it off)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups sugar, plus 5 tablespoons

4 to 5 cups peeled apples cut into roughly 1-inch pieces (the number of apples depends on their size)

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

¼ cup orange or apple juice

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Confectioners' sugar (optional)

Grease a 12- cup (10-inch) tube pan or bundt pan with margarine.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to blend. Set aside.

In a small bowl or cup, combine the cinnamon and 5 tablespoons of sugar. Stir to blend. Set aside.

Peel, core, and cut the apples. Place in a mixing bowl and toss with the cinnamon sugar. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and 2 cups of sugar together on medium speed until the mixture is light yellow and thick, about 1 minute. Slowly pour in the oil and continue beating another few seconds. Beat in the orange or apple juice and vanilla.

Stop the machine. Add the flour mixture all at once. Stir on lowest speed just until the flour is thoroughly blended in. Do not over mix.

By hand, stir in the apples and walnuts.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared tube or bundt pan.

Bake for 1½ hours. It should be well browned and separating from the sides of the pan.

Place the cake on a rack and let it cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes. While it is still warm, turn the cake out onto the rack.

Cool to room temperature before slicing. Or, even better, let stand several hours or overnight before serving. It's actually best the day after it is baked.

You may want to dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar. Use a serrated blade knife in a sawing motion for slicing.