Apple Kuchen

Okay, so remember how I said I had a butt-load of apples this week and needed to get rid of them? Well, I had so much that made this particular recipe twice this week. Once on Tuesday for my dad's potluck at work and the other last night for a Christmas party. Needless to say, it's so wonderful a dessert that my dad's co-workers have supposedly been bugging him for the recipe. I also received a few good reviews last night! According to my German friend, Anna, kuchen (when she says it, is sounds like she says "koo-hen") means cake. I like to think of this recipe as the German rendition of our classic "dump cake" because you literally just dump a few ingredients together and voila! You've got a super-duper delicious dessert in no time!

I got this recipe from Elegant Effortless Entertaining, a compilation of recipes from The Society of Daughters of the United States Army (DUSA) that I purchased at a holiday fair when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Above, you'll see that I simply cut some butter into your standard packaged yellow cake mix. I baked it for a few minutes and laid my granny smith apples on top.

Here, I topped the apples with an egg-sour cream mixture and baked for about 30 more minutes. What you get is what you see below--the cake turns a golden brown (oh, there's some coconut in the cake) with a nice creamy apple topping! It tastes good both warm or cold, and makes a great breakfast too. Mmmmm...mmmmm...good! Try it...you'll be surprised how easy it is to make.

Apple Kuchen

(from Effortless Entertaining by DUSA; recipe provided by Georgann Maertens Ozbolt)

1/2 cup soft butter

1 package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup coconut

1 egg

1 (20 oz.) can pie sliced apples or 2 1/2 cups chopped apples

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut butter into dry cake mix until crumbly; stir in coconut. Pat mixture lightly into an ungreased 9x13x2 inch pan, building edges up. Bake 10 minutes.
2. Arrange apples on crust. Mix sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle on fruit.
3. Blend sour cream and egg. Drizzle over apples. Bake 25 minutes, until edges are brown. Do not overbake!
4. Serve warm or cold. Serves 10 to 12.