Grandmother’s Apple Cake

Many baking novices feel that you can’t become an accomplished baker unless you learned at your grandmother’s knee. They assume every pastry chef got started in childhood getting secret tips as Granny (or Nona, Gremmy, or Nana), with flour on her apron, patiently demonstrated how to roll a pie crust and then fill it with freshly picked apples from an orchard two feet from the back door. Granted, this is a good way to become a baker but it is not the only way. Let’s face it—many of our grand