Spicy Halloween Ginger Cake

Even though this has Halloween in the name, it is not scary. It is just fall-ish. If I save this recipe, I'm not going to write down the Halloween part, just the Spicy Ginger Cake part. This is from the Farmhouse Cookbook that I've been working through. The lady got the recipe from farmers in Oregon. She said this cake is wonderful the first day, and is even better the second. We'll see about that. Well, tonight I am bringing this to home fellowship, so maybe we won't see if it's better the second day, because there might not be any left. But maybe...

Spicy Halloween Ginger Cake
2 cups molasses
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
4 3/4 cups cake flour (if you don't have cake flour, here's a link to subsitute with regular flour and cornstarch--it's what I did...www.food.com/recipe/cake-flour-subsitute-87689)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cloves
4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground mace
2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or baking chocolate cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 (don't really do this until I say...it will be on for like 2 hours if you make this your first step). Lightly oil a 13x9x2 inch baking pan. Combine the molasses, butter, and coffee in a medium-sized saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. As soon as it boils, remove from the heat. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of your electric mixer, and let cool to lukewarm (which takes a long time).

Sift the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside.

Core, peel, and halve the apples, then slice them into 1/4" thick slices. Line the prepared pan with the apple slices, slightly overlapping them. Sprinkle with the brown sugar.

(Turn on the oven now.) Whisk the eggs into the molasses mixture (this is why you have to let it cool, otherwise the eggs will start cooking when you add them in, and you will have scrambled eggs in there, ha ha). Add the dry ingredients and mix quickly but thoroughly. Then add sour cream, mixing just until it's incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips, and then pour the cake batter over the apple slices.

Bake in the center of the oven about 55 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes back clean. Place pan on wire rack to cool. To serve, cut the cake in pieces and turn them out of the pan upside down, so the apple slices are on top. Or turn the whole cake out onto a large serving platter, and serve.

So this cake was quite good. Some people didn't flip it over, because I didn't stand right by the cake and tell everyone. I did tell a few people. In fact, I told Steve in advance. Brooke and I had the same pan (she brought apple crisp) and Steve flipped her dessert over, thinking it was mine. Hee hee. Steve's feedback was that it was good, but could have used some whipped cream. Nobody else said anything, so I'm not sure if that means it wasn't that good or not. I thought it was a bit dry, compared to some other cakes I have made. But I think I will keep it anyway. It took a long time to make but wasn't really hard. And now I have all that mace.