My car insurance agent called me yesterday (completely interrupting my off pitch interpretation of Adele as I was putting away groceries)…he told me that I had lost my wallet.   “Oh reeeaaalllllly?!” I thought sarcastically in my head, “Then why do I have my purse riiighhht her.., oh, well, where did I put my purse?”

 

“You left it at the grocery store.”  He stated kindly.  ”Just ask for Bob, he has it there in the office.”  Sigh.  ”Thanks, George…and nice to meet you.”  And I will totally NOT be switching to Geico now.

What George failed to tell me was not that I just lost my wallet.  No.  I left my entire purse in the shopping cart outside in the shopping cart corral.  And some nice human being took it inside to the store manager for safe keeping.  Kind people do exist.

 

And so does this cake.  This is my favorite part of making a cake.  Whipping the butter and the sugar together until its fluffy.  Then taking a big whiff of it.  Is that weird?

More apples!!  And you can tell your mom there’s vegetables in this cake.

I stuck fork holes in that potato and used le microwave to bake it until it was soft all the way through.  Peel it, smooch it, mix it in.

The sweet potato leaves little flecks of orange throughout.  It’s lovely.  Like when you discover that no one has stolen your stuff that they totally could have stolen.

Oh, yeah.  Do this part too.  And easy on the nutmeg, I get carried away with the little nutmeg nut on the microplane.  Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape, enough.

Add a smidge at a time and mix it.  Add a smidge more and mix it.  Add the rest, mix it.

Getting closer!  Getting closer!  Almost there!

It already smells like a hug (Like the hug I gave Bob at the grocery store.) and you haven’t even baked it yet.

 

 

Well, if that was a hug, I’m not even sure what this is.  But what I do know is that I am incredibly grateful to the kind people in this world who do all the nice things that they do everyday.  A BIG thank you to the nice man or woman who made my life a lot easier yesterday.  Have some cake!

 

Sweet Potato Apple Cake

from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes by  Carol Gelles

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar or dark brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed baked sweet potatoes

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups chopped, peeled apple

Cinnamon-Sugar (1 Tablespoon sugar to 1 teaspoon cinnamon) for topping.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9-inch-square baking pan.  ( I totally used just whatever was easier to get to in the cabinet, so I used a 10 inch loaf pan.  I’d recommend to use a more shallow dish since this is a cake, not a bread.)

2.  In a large bowl or on a piece of waxed paper, stir together both flours, the baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.

3.  In a large bowl, cream the butter; add both sugars and beat until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Beat in the sweet potatoes, then the buttermilk.

4.  Stir in the dry ingredients until combined.  Stir in the chopped apples.

5.  Spread into the prepared baking pan.  Sprinkle tap generously with Cinnamon-Sugar.  Bake 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake has pulled away from the edges of the pan.  Cut into pieces.