I cook like Betty Crocker and I look like Donna Reed.

Fall Break is off to a terrific starts. Sweaters and I are the only ones in the apartment for the next couple days, so we decided to use our time to be highly domestic and adult in very kitcheny ways. Yesterday we made potato soup, homemade bread, and a caramel apple cake. All three were divine and I ended up taking a three hour nap on the couch after the feast, because that's what adults do on a Sunday afternoon, right? (Sweaters played video games for those three hours. A slightly less adulty use of the afternoon, but to each their own.)

To complete my feelings of kitchen adultness, I share with you the caramel apple cake recipe, which is, in fact, a Betty Crocker recipe, but spruced up a little by yours truly.

To find the starting Betty Crocker recipe click here.

But then here's my secrets that will make this recipe even better.

1. Double or triple the amount of apples it calls for. I doubled and it was delightfully appley, but it definitely wasn't a super strong apple flavor.

2. Use peanuts instead of pecans. This creates more of that caramel apple flavor.

3. (And this is the important one) Either use the measurements in the recipe and a smaller pan, OR use the pan size in the recipe and double the ingredients. What they want you to make is thin little apple bar bite with some crumble on the top. What I made was a cake made of mostly butter. And it was divine.

I didn't know that peanut covered caramel apples rolled in butter was what my soul wanted, but it most definitely is. And it was so satisfying. I hope it is for you, too. Enjoy!



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