At the coffee shop in downtown Burlington, Vermont where he landed his first restaurant job as a teenager, Rick Warner whipped up an apple spice cake from a co-worker’s mother’s recipe.
“We didn’t have a name for it and the first time we served it, this guy bit in to it and he said, ‘That’s incredible.’ So it became called apple incredible cake,” Warner recalled. “I actually have it memorized in my head, that’s how many times I’ve made it.”
When Kay Nannet, executive director of the Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic, read the recipe in her church’s newsletter, she saw an opportunity to promote the nonprofit healthcare provider.
The clinic already puts the spotlight on local cooks in the annual Dining with the Chefs fundraiser, which Warner spearheaded. The event will look different in 2020 due to social distancing.
“As we are discussing what we’re going to do with Dining with the Chefs this year in the age of pandemic, [Warner] had mentioned in our meeting last week that he has this YouTube channel where he shows his cooking,” Nannet said.
Bakers who try their own hand at Warner’s cake recipe and post a photo of the dessert on social media have a chance to receive a $10 gift card to The Parthenon-Good to Go Xpresso.
“The clinic is going to be needed even more than ever because of the health crisis that we’re going through, and the number of people who are uninsured in the county or underinsured in the county,” said Warner, who served on the clinic’s board of directors.
As a history professor at Wabash College, Warner had planned to open his home kitchen to students in a course on food and Latin America. When classes were moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he posted the cooking demonstrations on a YouTube channel for the class.
The channel evolved into a series of “social distance dining” videos, where Warner shows viewers how to make comfort foods.
“It’s about learning cooking skills. There’s not a lot in the way of recipes,” he said. “I’m sort of encouraging people to think about how food works and using stuff that you may or may not have around, and enjoying it.”
Here’s the recipe for the cake:
Apple Incredible Cake
Mix: 1-1/2 cups of oil
2 cups of sugar
1 Tbsp. of vanilla
Beat in: 4 eggs
Mix in: 3-1/2 cups of flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
After thoroughly mixed, add: 4 large apples
Bake in greased Bundt pan or other pan at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes until knife comes out clean. Shorter baking time for thinner casserole pan or muffin tins.
