German Apple Cake: Apfelkuchen

There are lots of recipes for what are termed "Apfelkuchen" (apple cakes) in the German cultural areas of Europe. Some tilt more to what Americans would call "pies," as they have a dough base and an apple filling, sometimes topped with another layer of dough, like the typical apple pie in the United States, or they might have strips of dough crisscrossed like lattice work (usually called "Apfel Gitterkuchen" in German). Sometimes the dough is a short dough ("Mürbeteig" in German), or it might be made from yeast ("Hefeteig"), or it might be a cake batter ("Kuchenteig"), like my recipe here. Sometimes the apples are quartered (or sometimes halved) and then each quarter has the apples sliced, but not all the way through, which creates a kind of fan, and then these apple quarters are placed on top of a cake batter, where they "sink" into the batter. This is usually called "Versunkener Apfelkuchen;" that is, "Sunken Apple Cake," although I can't imagine how they came up with that name. Hmm, give me some time and maybe I'll figure it out. Anyhow, this is my own recipe, although it is very much "based" upon the often used ingredients for German batter apple cakes.    

Serve topped with raisins and chopped hazelnuts and some optional whipped cream. You can certainly add the raisins and chopped nuts to the batter, but I put these on top of the finished cake or on each serving. Not everyone likes raisins and others may have nut allergies. 

Ingredients:

3 to 4 medium apples, peeled, cored 
1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I use canned milk, also called evaporated milk)
raisins and chopped nuts for strewing on top (hazelnuts, cashews, pecans are all good candidates)

Heat oven to 350 F. Use oil, shortening or butter to grease a baking pan or dish (you can use a cake pan or a deep pie pan or dish or a spring form cake pan). In a mixing bowl or other type of bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon peel; then beat in the eggs, one at a time, until totally incorporated then give the developing batter some high mixer speed for about 45 to 60 seconds; then mix in the milk, followed by the flour, baking powder and cinnamon, and once mixed, again turn the mixer to high speed for about one minute. Cut the peeled and cored apples into quarters, then cut the quarters into slices about the thickness used for fried potatoes. Add a handful of apple slices to the batter and stir them into the batter. Pour the batter into the greased baking pan. Place the remaining apple slices over the top and give them a little push just to anchor them in the batter, not to cover them (the cake will puff up around the apple slices as it bakes). Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

WORD HISTORY:
Like-This word is related to  "each" and "ilk," both words from the Germanic roots of English. There are adjective, verb and noun uses of this word, all coming from the same source, but this history will be for the verb, with the others to follow in future articles. The origin of "like" seems to go back to Indo European "leig/leyg,"^ which meant "form, likeness." This gave Old Germanic "lika(n)," with the meanings, "to be similar or the same in form/shape;" thus also by extension, "suitable, suited to, fitting." This produced the Old Germanic verb "likjanan," meaning "to please (thus also "to like," but used impersonally as in, "The flowers are pleasing to me;" thus meaning, "I like the flowers"), with this meaning seemingly coming from "something that is suitable is pleasing." This gave Old English "lician," meaning, "to be pleasing, to be sufficient (sufficiency gives satisfaction and pleasure);" thus with the extended notion of "to like" ("to find something or someone pleasing"), and further, "to feel pleased toward or suited toward;" thus, "to be in agreement or conformity with." This then became "liken," before the modern form, with the primary meaning being, "to feel pleased toward someone or something;" thus, "to have fondness for." Note: There was also a prefixed verb form in Old Germanic, "galikonan," which meant, "to look or be alike, to make even;" thus also, "to equalize, to make smooth." It gave Old English "gelician," meaning "to be like, to make alike," with the extended meaning, "to please." This verb form seemingly merged with its close relative "lician," which has come clear down to us today as "(to) like." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "gleichen" (to be the same or similar to, to equal), Low German has both "lieken" and "glieken" (both mean to be like or similar, to equal), West Frisian "lykje" (to be or look similar), Dutch "gelijken" (to look or seem the same or similar) and "lijken," with the same meaning, Norwegian "like" (pronounced like "leeka," meaning "to find someone or something pleasing"), Swedish "lika" (antiquated, but means "to make the same or similar"), Icelandic "lika" (have fondness for). I didn't find a verb form in Danish, but I didn't spend much time on it.  

^ There are some forms outside the Germanic languages, which give reinforcement to an Indo European origin: Latvian has "ligt," meaning "agreement" and Lithuanian has the adjective "lygus," meaning "equal" and the noun "lygti," meaning "equation." Latvian and Lithuanian are Baltic languages, now more often than not seen as paired with the Slavic languages as Balto-Slavic.