Last weekend was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Normally, I head to Montreal to celebrate with my mom’s side of the family. This year, however, I wasn’t able to go.

Jewish holidays are always a bit hard for me diet-wise, since so much of Jewish cooking involves eggs and sugar. My grandmother (Bubby) used to make this fluffy, golden apple cake every year. Of course, the main ingredients were flour, eggs and sugar.

Although I’m sure you’ve had apple cake before, there are two reasons that make this particular to Jewish holidays.

The first is that it’s dairy free: Jews don’t mix milk and meat at the same meal and since this cake is always a post-meat meal dessert, it uses oil instead of butter. (Eggs are neutral. I’ve never understood why…)

The second reason apple cake is unique to this particular holiday in that apples symbolize the Jewish new year, always in September. Apples and honey are paired for a “sweet new year”. Thus, this cake is a perfect hello to fall.

So get this: Instead of longingly staring at the decidedly Emily-unfriendly cake at my aunt’s house, I decided to make up for it and make an Emily-friendly version…for 200 people!

I volunteered myself at The Hot Yam!, a vegan cooking collective that runs a weekly $4 vegan, mostly local and organic lunch on campus for students hungry for some real food for a change. Here’s the recipe, scaled back to normal for your kitchen convenience.

Bubby’s Apple Cake – Veganized etc.

1 2/3 cups (400ml) spelt flour
2 tsp. (10ml) baking powder
1 tsp. (5ml) cinnamon
1/2 tsp. (2.5ml) nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. (2.5ml) sea salt
3/4 cup (180ml) unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup (120ml) maple syrup (but I would like to try it with honey soon)
1/4 cup (60ml) unsweetened non-dairy milk
1/4 cup oil (60ml) oil (non-hydrogenated coconut oil / organic canola oil / a light-tasting olive oil preferred
2 medium apples (appro 2 cups) peeled and chopped into chunks

**Excellent varieties for baking: Cameo, Cortland, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonagold, Jonathan, Rome
Good varieties for baking: Braeburn, Empire, Fuji, Gala, Ginger Gold, HoneyCrisp, Newton Pippin, Pink Lady.

Preheat oven to 375oF. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt.

Add the applesauce, syrup, milk, oil, and stir just until all of the flour is absorbed.

Stir in the apple chunks.

Add to greased baking pan (8″x8″ or a loaf pan), spreading it around evenly. Bake for about 35 minutes (maybe 5min longer in a loaf pan). It’s done when a toothpick comes out cleanly. FYI it’s probably going to be quite moist at first so to prevent apple crumble, let it cool a while before removing from the pan.

My roommate, Lukas, making his internet debut

Lukas's patience in his first photoshoot wanes.