The Lazy Traditionalist Prepares for Rosh Hashana

Apple cake baking —
The perfume that permeates
A High holiday.

In my house, “prepare”
means opening a cookbook.
Dust scatters around.

My five fingers turn
page by laminated page.
My eyes scan up, down.

Bubbi is gone now.
But her legacy remains
In a whiff of …

cinnamon

In a voice I can
still hear in between the lines
of a recipe.

= = =

The treasured recipe book my Bubbi made for me

BUBBI’S RECIPE FOR JEWISH APPLE CAKE

Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and 4 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin together. Set aside.

Place in large mixing bowl: 2 cups sugar, 4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 4 cups flour.

Make a “well” in the center of dry mix and add: 1 cup orange juice, 1 cup oil, 4 eggs.

Beat well.

Grease and flour a tube cake pan. Pour half of batter into the pan. Pout 1/2 of apple mix on top of batter. Pour in rest of batter and top with rest of apple mix. Bake in 350 oven 1 – 1 1/2 hour until done. Loosen the sides, but don’t turn pan over until completely cool. (Author’s note: Ovens vary. I turned the oven down to 300 after one hour.