Kazia Jankowski - big world | small kitchen

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Polish Apple Cake for a Birthday

Over breakfast, I usually check my email, and a couple of weeks ago, with a cup of Earl Gray in hand, I double clicked on a message from my dad, titled, “Food for Thought.” I expected to find a restaurant recommendation or an invite to Denver’s restaurant week, but instead, there was one short line:

Tomorrow, February 25, would be Grandma Jankowski’s 100th birthday.

My dad’s mother, Helen Jankowski, who had died the summer of 2006, was born one century ago.

Wow, I blinked and read the email again, this time thinking of the child of Polish immigrants who grew up just south of Hartford, Connecticut. The single daughter of five children, and a woman who wasn’t afraid of going against the grain. In her late 20s, despite her parent’s nay saying, Helen went to nursing school, and in her early 30s, long after her childhood friends slid rings onto their fingers, she married Joseph Jankowski.

By the time, I knew her, Helen had grown plump around the middle and cut (and permed) her hair. But she still had the girlish warmth of someone who’d grown up in a large Eastern European household—and the toughness of a woman, who didn’t necessarily follow convention.

Grandma Jankowski loved her granddaughters—my sister, my cousins, and me—which meant that during our childhoods, she’d play countless games of Black Jack with girls who could barely count to 21. And she would bake. When her granddaughters visited, there were always golden loaves of babka, crumbly snacking cake, and blueberry pie. Days started with sweet Polish bread smeared with butter, afternoons lingered over of slices of chocolate sheet cake, and big meals finished with sugar-dusted slices of plump pie topped with whipped cream.

With Helen’s sweetness in mind, I turned my head back to my dad’s email. A 100th birthday was news worthy of a celebration. So a few days later, in honor of the snacking cakes my grandma once made, I pulled flour and sugar out of my cabinet. I let eggs come to room temperature on the counter. I chopped tart Granny Smith apples into a dice. What better way was there to celebrate a Polish woman than to make a European-style apple cake and serve it with lavish amounts of whipped cream (a Pole’s favorite food)?

That kind of cake, with a dense, buttery crumb and a caramelized fruit topping, was certainly the kind for which Helen Jankowski would have put down her Danielle Steele novel. She would have come into the kitchen, dipped her finger into the whipped cream bowl, and then sat down to enjoy a slice of cake with her granddaughter.

Polish Apple Cake
Serves 10 to 12
Adapted from Baking Illustrated

This golden apple cake has three secrets: a sugar dusted pan, a caramelized apple topping, and whipped cream. The first two characteristcs give the classic cake a sophisticated topping and a slightly crunchy crumb—but its garnish of creamy, vanilla-accented whipped cream makes the cake officially Polish. It’s hard to separate a good Pole from her whipped cream and a generous serving on this cake is exactly how my Polish-American grandmother would have served it.

For the pan:

2 tablespoons butter, softened
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar

For the cake:

3 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks, room temperature
½ cup heavy cream, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) butter, cut into one-tablespoon pieces, softened but still cool

For the apples:

2 large Granny Smith or Fuji Apples (about 1 pound), peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch cubes
2 tablespoons brown sugar

For the whipped cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Adjust the oven rack to the lower middle position, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using your hands, grease a 12-cup Bundt pan with butter. It may appear that there is too much butter, but just keep smearing until the grease is evenly distributed. Then, starting with the granulated sugar, and following with the brown sugar, sprinkle the sides and bottom of the pan with sugar. Let any excess sugar gather at the bottom of the pan.

In a glass measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, yolks, cream, and vanilla. Set aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir the dry ingredients. Add the butter, one piece at a time, until the mixture resembles course cornmeal, about 1 to 1 ½ minutes.

While the mixer is still running, add ½ cup of the egg mixture. Mix until incorporated about 15 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high, and beat until light and fluffy, about one minute. Add remaining egg mixture and beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl, and beat again until combined, about 30 seconds.

Toss the apples in brown sugar, and place, in a single layer, on the bottom of the pan. Using a large spoon, gently scoop the batter over the apples. Level batter with back of spoon or a rubber spatula.

Bake until cake is pulls away from the sides of the pan and springs back when pressed with a finger, about 35 to 45 minutes. A wooden toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean.

Meanwhile, cover a cooling rack with foil. Immediately, invert the cake onto the covered cooling rack. Remove pan, and cool at least one hour.

In a medium bowl combine whipping cream and vanilla. Using electric mixer, beat on medium-high, until cream comes together and forms peaks.

Serve slices of apple cake with a generous dollop of whipped cream.

For printable recipe, click here.

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