Apple Cake (For Mama)

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I remember very little of my great-grandmother Olha Bilevych (née Bazylevych, 1862–1958). In the last years of her life, my grandmother (Olha Franko) visited her mother every single day, caring for the elderly woman with great tenderness.

So as not to leave me alone at home — my sister was already going to school by then — grandmother would take me along with her. Along the way, through the park, she would tell me about her mother. She remembered her with deep admiration, recalling how kind and warm-hearted she was. She spoke of their home, of how much her mother loved to welcome family or simply friends. For holidays she would prepare an enormous spread, and her baking was extraordinary — at Easter there had to be no fewer than twelve kinds of sweets. One of them was the "Apple Cake," which, incidentally, was also always made in my father Bohdan Sitnytsky's family, and that is why I remember its taste so well from my childhood.

My great-grandmother was just as tall as grandmother; despite her considerable age — she was 96 at the time — she walked with a straight back and was beautiful, just like my grandmother and my mother.

One day, grandmother brought lunch as she did every day, but she had also brought some little pastries. After she had fed her mother, her brother arrived — Uncle Oles (Oleksandr Bilevych) — and we sat down to have tea with the sweets. When only one little pastry remained on the plate, I wanted to eat it, but grandmother said that one doesn't take the last piece. To which her brother replied: "Well, someone has to eat it."

While preparing this "Apple Cake" from my great-grandmother's recipe, that memory came back to me. It was in that distant year of 1958 that my great-grandmother passed away.

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For a 18–20 cm cake tin

Pastry

• 150 g flour
• 90 g butter
• 50 g icing sugar

1. Knead a dough from all the ingredients, then divide it into two equal portions.
2. Bake two thin rounds.

Filling

• 1 kg apples
• 300 g sugar
• 300 ml water
• 180 g chopped mikdaly (almonds), or walnuts
• 60 g candied fruit /recipes/czukaty/
• Zest and juice of one lemon
• 0.5 tsp cinnamon, 3 cloves ground to a powder

1. Peel the apples and slice them thinly.
2. Bring the water and sugar to a boil, add the apples, and cook over low heat.
3. Stir until the mixture becomes a marmolyada (a thick jam, similar to a preserve).
4. Add the spices and lemon zest. Remove from heat.
5. Toast the almonds or walnuts, cut the candied fruit into small pieces, and add everything to the apple mixture.
6. Mix well, then add lemon juice to taste.
7. Set aside to cool completely.

Icing

Blend 200 g of icing sugar with the juice of one lemon until smooth.

1. Place one round of shortcrust pastry at the bottom of the cake tin, or an andruty (thin wafer).
2. Spread the cooled apple filling over it.
3. Cover with the second round and press down gently.
4. Ice the finished cake with the lemon glaze.

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This cake can also be made with 3–4 layers (prepare a double batch of pastry dough), with apple filling spread between each layer.

marmolyada – jam (a thick fruit preserve)

andruty – thin wafers

tsynamon – cinnamon