Ichabod Crane Cider Cake
I’m a creature of habit in a lot of ways. I like making and keeping up yearly/seasonal traditions. They’re something to look forward to, a grounding anchor, if you will.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you know that holiday traditions are especially important to me–there’s no way that I could do as 12 Days of Christmas series if they weren’t.
But around this time of year–specifically, Halloween– one of my longtime (I’m talking 20 +years) is to watch a movie with one of my sisters called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
No, not the one from the 90’s with Johhny Depp (nothing against the movie though, I thought it was fine.)
Not the TV show from a few years ago either. (Which I’ve never seen but heard decent things about)
What I’m referring to is actually a cartoon short that was first made in the 1940’s about Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” about an itinerant schoolmaster in colonial New England named Ichabod Crane that was (spoiler alert) ‘disappeared’ by the ghost of a decapitated Hessian soldier known as The Headless Horseman.
In retrospect that sounds pretty dark for a kids program, but what can I say; it was a different time.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a cartoon that during Spooky Season was aired very early in the mornings on a kids tv channel that I watched growing up. I really liked it, and it got to the point where I would make sure that I was up and ready to watch it every year as a tradition. Interestingly enough, it’s still a tradition that my sister and I keep up to this day now that we’re grown up and things like On Demand streaming are a thing.
One of the things that I always liked about the Ichabod Crane character was that despite being shaped so thin that he looked “like a scarecrow,” he absolutely LOVED to eat, and eat a lot. This was extremely relatable content to childhood me–and even though it’s safe to say I am definitely no longer shaped like a scarecrow, the live-to-eat part stuck with me.
If you’ve ever seen/are familiar with a recipe from centuries ago, then you’ll know that they’re typically pretty rudimentary and simple. I find them fascinating, especially when they’re from an era of history that I’m interested in. I’ve tested out a few before, but when I saw this on another blog called Kitchen Overlord, that it was specifically named after Ichabod Crane, and that it was made with some of my favorite autumn ingredients, I knew that I had to try it out.
The recipe itself came together fairly easily. It smelled like absolute heaven in the oven while it was baking.But I’ll be honest when I first cut into this baby, I was afraid that something had gone horribly wrong. It was/is extremely dense–they type of dense that makes you worry that you mixed your cake improperly. I was very tempted to bin the whole thing.
But then I decided, on a whim, to taste test it anyway.
Boy am I glad that I gave in to that whim. This cake is delicious. The texture was definitely dense and unlike any other I’ve had in a cake before, but it wasn’t tough or rubbery-just different. And for whatever reason, it just really worked. The spices and flavor of the hard applecider really come through, and they’re given an added lift with the fresh and candied ginger. The cinnamon sugar that I sprinkled on top just before baking gave it a crackly crust that paired really well with the cake’s overall texture.
Safe to say, this one is definitely going to become another Spooky Season tradition to go along with my yearly watch of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Happy Halloween!
Ichabod Crane Cider Cake
Recipe Adapted from Kitchen Overlord
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp cloves, ¼ tsp allspice)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated or minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 oz/ 1 ½ cups hard cider
- 1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger (optional)
- Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray and line a 9 inch deep dish pie or cake pan with cooking spray and parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, dry spices and salt.
In another medium bowl, use a handheld mixer to cream together the butter and brown sugar until light ad fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the fresh ginger and vanilla, mixing just until smooth.
Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the hard cider to the batter, beginning and ending with flour.
Stir in the crystallized ginger.
Spread/pour the batter into the cake pan, place the cake pan on a sheet pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 – 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Check it early).
Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #613.
It looks really different, but I’m sure the ginger gives this an unforgettable flavor!
It is very different, but in a good/tasty way. And the ginger flavor can’t be beat 🙂
I love ginger everything!
That just looks like good old home cooking, but delving into the ingredients, I can easily see it’s hiding a fabulous array of flavors!! I just love an old recipe, too!
Thank you–some times it’s the simplest recipes that turn out the best 😉