good way to use up apples

I don't know about others, but I love to peel apples. It's meditative, smells wonderful, and it's fun to try to get the peel off in one long swirl. We've had a mess of apples crowding the fruit drawer of the fridge so I thought it was time to make My Mom's Apple Cake. It's a flexible recipe in that you can double the amount of apples (I always do), and it's good with or without nuts. We eat it for breakfast all week, after the reward of making the house smell lovely

Here it is:

preheat oven 350

3 cups peeled apple chunks (it will also work with 4, 5, and 6 cups of apples)
1 cup walnuts
1 cup raisins

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
nutmeg to taste

1.5 cups canola oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs

In one bowl combine the wet ingredients, in another combine the dry. Then mix them together (it will be stiff like cookie dough), and add the fruit.
Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan and cook for an hour and 15 minutes. Let it stand in the pan for about 20 minutes after cooking. The top will develop a crispitilicious crust so don't turn it upside down for storing or it will become soft.

If anyone tries this, I'd love to know your opinion. Enjoy!

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm planning a batch this week.

CARAMEL APPLE BUTTER

Use any apple of your choice. Core, peel and cut apples in half and place in crock pot until almost full (the number of apples will depend on the size of your crock pot). Top with cinnamon and place crock pot on high heat. Check periodically until all apples are tender. Using a blender, hand blender or hand mixer blend all apples until smooth. Place apples back into crock pot and top with candy milk caramels. Return the crock pot to high heat and cook until all caramels are melted. Mix well and store in mason jars of your choice. This will store well sealed for up to 6 months.

You can also take those peels and cores, and cook them down with some water, sugar and wine (whatever, to taste) strain it, and use it to glaze that apple cake. It gets thick and gooey. The skin can also be pureed up with the apples for that apple butter, if you want, or some pureed skin can be added to a cake to substitute for some oil. It adds flavor and fiber.

Making confit of apples - thought I was going to make a pie, but not. I might end up putting some of this into pie crust anyway, but maybe not. Using up all my different apples from the last outdoor farmer's market last week.

I'm sort of using this recipe
http://michaellaiskonis.typepad.com/mai ... -time.html
but did not do the smoked cinnamon caramel thing. I used sugar, scraped vanilla beans, cinnamon, a touch of salt, and grated orange zest. I'm baking it now for a few hours, then will let it sit and congeal itself overnight in the fridge. Not sure if I need to weight it....

curious and lazy, about how many average sized apples make a cup?

I plan on making that apple cake this weekend - sounds great!