Apple Cake and The Adventures of Robin Hood

It's interesting how days unfold. Yesterday, Boston was gripped with the edge of Hurricane Sandy, spewing torrents of wind. Rain rattled like a shower of marbles against my windows. The lights flickered on and off ominously. However, today the sky shines with a light blue hue and sunlight dapples the piles of brown and orange leaves dotting the grass. Only the wet twigs strewn across the road and a fallen tree down my street bear witness to yesterday's calamitous weather. The Earth is renewing itself, healing its wounds, ready to begin again. It is a lesson we all can learn.

September was a hectic month for me. I began graduate school, and it took me awhile to become accustomed to academic rhythms yet again. Happiness swells inside me whenever I engage in a class discussion, realizing how much I missed talking about history and sharing viewpoints with others. I also started a column for an Italian-American newspaper entitled about the holidays, customs, and folklore of Italy, and I have found this more rewarding than anything I have ever done. However, I found myself itching to get back to baking, to those quiet nights spent in the kitchen measuring ingredients and watching them transform, as if by magic, into a delectable treat in the oven. So once October began, I vowed to dive into baking and blogging again.

What better time to start baking than late October, when the dark nights settle into a quiet stillness and the kitchen light bathes the room in a cozy, homey glow. This is the time of cinnamon and apples, pumpkin and ginger, pears and nutmeg, all rich scents and tastes that tap into the very essence of autumn. Writing this now on the day before Halloween, I look outside at the yellow leaves blowing against a tranquil sky and can practically feel ancient souls and memories surrounding me. In honor of the sense of history fall inspires, the medieval origin of Halloween and my new-found affection for the television show Game of Thrones, the movie I chose for this blog entry is The Adventures of Robin Hood. Here are Dan's thoughts.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Adding the finishing touches to his Robin Hood, Kevin Costner made some caustic remarks about Michael Curtiz’s The Adventures of Robin Hood and vowed to improve upon the accuracy and the spectacle. His glum film did neither and The Adventures of Robin Hood remains the ultimate swashbuckling classic. Striving for accuracy in a Robin Hood movie is a dubious venture anyway. As with King Arthur, so much of what is known about the Sherwood Forest outlaw exists in a no man’s land of history and legend.

Given the futility of presenting a purely historical, the measure of a Robin Hood movie is the sheer joy and thrills. The Adventures of Robin Hood delivers that in spades, feeling fresh each time Errol Flynn, in the green tights that immortalized him, welcomes us to Sherwood.  It’s a beautiful, lush, movie and Warner Bros. knew it from the start.  They splurged on this one and the studio’s spare-no-expense approach in recreating Sherwood in California and with the lush Technicolor. Robin Hood and his Merry Men swing by and fight the tyrannical Prince John’s (Claude Rains) minion Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone), in the sword fight to start and end all sword fights, creating a magnificent splash of colors. 

Errol Flynn is the ideal outlaw, charming enough for Maid Marion (Olivia de Havilland, taking our breath away) and agile enough to evade capture. It’s a thrill ride before the concept of thrill rides at the movies became synonymous with CGI. Flynn may have taken the swashbuckler thrown from Douglas Fairbanks, but in The Adventures of Robin Hood he makes it his own.  And so it has stayed, Flynn remains the ultimate Robin Hood stunning us with feats that not even the wizards behind the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise could duplicate with all their computer and digital slickness. 

See The Adventures of Robin Hood for its beauty, sheer joy, and for the role that forever cemented Errol Flynn as a man of flight. 

Thanks, Dan! And now for the recipe...

Oh, wow. This recipe. I knew I wanted to make something with apples for Robin Hood ever since I read a medieval recipe for an apple galette. I settled for a cake, however, but I never expected to make a cake this good. Speaking completely without hyperbole, this is the best apple cake I have ever tried. It is soft, silky, and hits the right balance between sweetness and spice. The butterscotch sauce on top adds a light yet decadent surprise. This recipe was a contest winner at Taste of Home magazine, submitted by a reader named Debi Benson. It's no contest, I'll be making this one again.

Apple Cake

From Taste of Home, by Debi Benson

Serves 12-14

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 cups tart apples, peeled and chopped into small square chunks

For butterscotch sauce:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup whipping cream

1) In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla. The mixture will appear crumbly. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well--the batter will be stiff. Fold in apples until well combined.

2) Spread batter into a greased 13- by 9-in baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes until lightly browned on top or until it springs back lightly when gently touched. Let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

3) For sauce: Combine brown sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter melts. Gradually add whipping cream. Stirring constantly, bring to a slow boil over medium heat. Remove from heat. Drizzle on top of cake slices when serving.

Next Time: I'm thinking All Quiet on the Western Front, not sure about the recipe