54 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2024 
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ver the last two weeks, we 
covered Rosh Hashanah appe-
tizers, sides and mains, which 
means that this week, it’s time for des-
serts! As a holiday when we hope for a 
good and sweet year ahead, having an 
appropriate dessert to mark the occasion 
is critical. 
Having surveyed many friends and 
family members, it’s become clear that 
there are two camps of Rosh Hashanah 
dessert lovers in my social circle: team 
apple cake and team honey cake. The 
household in which I grew up was a 
decidedly apple cake family. Each year, 
my mother would make a towering 
apple cake, alternating layers of bat-
ter and cinnamon-sugared apples. As 
a result, if you asked me what Rosh 
Hashanah tastes like, I would say, hands 
down, my mother’s apple cake.
For the first Rosh Hashanah dinner 
I hosted, I requested the recipe and felt 
triumphant releasing it from the pan. I 
had a little extra batter, which I baked 
up separately to taste before serving it to 
company, and when I tried it, it was the 
taste I had remembered from home.
Nonetheless, over the years, both my 
mother and I, independently and joint-
ly, have experimented with different 
recipes, some slight variations on her 
standard apple cake recipe, and others 
that are more divergent, adding honey 
or bourbon or caramelizing the apples, 

for example. While I’ve appreciated their 
novelty, to me, it is always the tradition-
al recipe that reigns supreme.
It was only after leaving home that I 
discovered a whole other world of team 
honey cake as well as other traditional 
Rosh Hashanah desserts from around 
the world. Nonetheless, I will always be 
a vocal advocate for team apple cake.
I share with you several recipes for 
desserts for a sweet new year. Of course, 
I include the recipe for my mother’s 
apple cake. Her recipe looks to be out 
of a Jewish newspaper of unknown 
provenance from many years ago, which 
brings us full circle to sharing it here, in 
another Jewish newspaper. 
For something different, I include a 
recipe for a salted caramel chocolate 
ganache tart, which is both vegan and 
gluten free, to accommodate a variety 
of dietary restrictions. The tart contains 
both chocolate, for some variety, and 
dates, a food traditionally eaten on Rosh 
Hashanah as a siman (sign/omen): We 
eat dates (temarim in Hebrew) so that 
our haters should perish (sheyitamu). 
Finally, I share a recipe with some 
complementary textures and flavors that 
encapsulate my own hopes for the com-
ing year: olive oil shortbread with rose-
mary and chocolate chunks, for a year 
that is rosy and in which I, God-willing, 
meet someone to marry! Wishing every-
one a good and sweet year ahead. 

continued on page 56

JOELLE ABRAMOWITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ROSH HASHANAH

Food for Thought:
Rosh 
Hashanah 
Desserts

Ingredients

Filling:
5-6 apples (a mix of tart and 
sweet), peeled, cored, & cut into 
bite-sized pieces
2 tsp. cinnamon
5 Tbsp. sugar

Batter:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup neutral oil
4 eggs
¼ cup orange juice
2½ tsp. vanilla

Directions
Arrange rack in middle 
of oven. Preheat oven to 
350°F.
Make the filling: In a large 
bowl, sprinkle the apples 
with the cinnamon and sugar 
and stir until combined.
Make the batter: In anoth-
er large bowl, whisk togeth-
er the flour, sugar, baking 
powder and salt. Add the oil, 
eggs, orange juice and vanil-
la, and mix with a spatula or 

electric mixer until combined 
in a smooth batter. Pour 
half the batter into an angel 
food cake pan. Arrange half 
the apple mixture over the 
batter and cover with the 
remaining batter. Top with 
the remaining apple mixture 
arranged evenly over the 
batter. Place on a foil-lined 
sheet pan and bake for 1½ 
hours or until the cake is 
golden brown and a tester 
inserted in the center comes 
out clean. 
Carefully turn the cake 
out of the pan onto a wire 
rack and let stand until fully 
cooled. Store covered at 
room temperature for 1-2 
days, or store in the refrig-
erator for longer, bringing 
to room temperature before 
serving.
Note: When using a bundt 
pan, I recommend dividing 
the batter in thirds, so the 
final layer of apples can be 
topped with the remaining 
batter. (With the angel food 
cake pan, end with the 
apple mixture.) 

MY MOTHER’S APPLE CAKE

Serves 10. Pareve 

