Autumn means apple cake

Ryan's lunch: baby carrots;
apple layer cake; chicken-
free salad; steamed broccoli;
pizza pinwheels.

Ryan couldn't wait for lunch
this morning! Drooling over
the apple cake, sampling the
extra pinwheels...

The pizza pinwheels were
inspired by a Pillsbury
appetizer magazine from
last fall. Whenever crescent
rolls are on sale and I have
a coupon, I am a sucker.
I filled these with: a sprinkle
of vegan parmesan, 1 oz.
grated cheddar Vegan
Gourmet cheese, a dribble
of mild salsa, 1/4 package
of Yves pepperoni, chopped.
Roll, slice, bake for 11 mins.
Perfect size for little hands
and lunchboxes!

Leaves are changing around
here...so instead of showing 400 leaf pics that I love so much, here's one that made it inside that is a cornucopia of colour all to itself.

Ah, the apple cake! My
husband's favourite, though
I don't make it often...like
maybe every 5 years! I
am not big on baked fruit
desserts, but this...cake,
and grated lemon zest
accenting the middle filling
full of raisins and walnuts.
Mmmmmmm.....

Here's how I cut a layer in
half: score the outside with
a knife exactly at the middle,
then pull a piece of dental
floss though the cake.
Perfection! Cutting layers
with a knife always results
in an uneven cake in my
experience.

The final product. I admit
I served my own piece
with some Purely Decadent
cookie dough ice cream that
happened to be on sale.
The Apple Layer Cake recipe can be found in Lindsay Wagner and Ariane Spade's cookbook The High Road To Health. I sub regular flour for the pastry flour, regular and brown sugar for the date sugar, and cranberry apple cider for the apple juice.