Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on AnnArbor.com. Read past columns here.

Simply bound in blue plastic spiral rings, its white cover with bent corners features a sketch of a spotted dog wearing a bandana around its neck and a birthday hat. It reads, “Happy 25th Birthday, West Point Elementary, 1988-1989” Inside, it’s pages are filled with a collection of recipes as unique as the neighborhood that compiled them.

This was my first community cookbook. The parents of each student at my elementary school submitted recipes on their child’s behalf. My mother chose to include recipes like walnut quick bread and my grandmother’s English shortbread for me and my younger sister. I love this humble little cookbook; it's the source of the zucchini bread recipe my mother and I have been baking for years.

“All Cakes Considered” author Melissa Gray found the recipe for Fresh Apple Cake in her favorite community cookbook, "Sharing Our Best."

Do you bake from community cookbooks? If you were to participate in a community cookbook, what would you submit?

I had high hopes for this week's Fresh Apple Cake. Granny Smith apples, walnuts and dried cherries are some of the major ingredients - what’s not to love?

Move over butter! This recipe contains 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil as the fat, which is something I haven’t come across in an “All Cakes Considered” recipe before.

“Cakes made with oil are moister and maintain freshness longer than those made with solid fats, because oil does not re-solidify after baking as do butter and other solid fats. Oil is most frequently used in chiffon cakes, some sponge cakes, and carrot or pumpkin cakes. My favorite oil for baking is safflower, although corn, soybean, canola, and rapeseed are good alternatives," says Carole Walter, author of "Great Cakes."

I beat the oil with the eggs, sugar and vanilla to make a very wet, oily mixture. Next, I added all of the dry ingredients and mixed on low speed. At this point, I had a very thick mixture that was difficult to stir.

I folded the peeled, chopped apples, walnuts and dried cherries into the mixture. Because it was so thick, I dumped rather than poured it into my 9-inch round pan. The pan was heavy. It took a firm grip with both hands and a little muscle to pick it up and pop it in the oven.

I never met a cake I didn’t like ... until now.

Why? First, the cooking time was way off. After the recommended baking time of 1 hour, I tested for doneness with a toothpick. From the looks of the toothpick, it was like soup inside that cake. I let it bake 15 minutes longer: same result. When all was said and done I’d left the cake in the oven for an additional 45 minutes.

My next gripe? The taste. I cut myself a slice, and it looked so appealing with all the chunks of fruit strewn about at random. I was salivating in anticipation, but when the first bite hit my tongue my taste buds weren't ready for such a disappointment.

The cake was much too oily for me; it actually tasted like vegetable oil! I used Crisco brand vegetable oil, which is soybean oil according to the ingredients list. Maybe I should use a different vegetable oil next time? (I have another bottle of vegetable oil in my cupboard that is a combination of canola and safflower oils.)

I was alone with my negative opinions about this cake. Rex thought Fresh Apple Cake was very tasty and was bummed when he found out a bunch of it went to the trash at the end of the week rather than in his tummy. Others who tried it liked the flavor and thought it would be a good hearty, breakfast cake.

I don’t want to give up on Fresh Apple Cake just yet. I'll bake it again in the fall when the farmers market has bushels upon bushels of apples for sale. I may substitute applesauce for part of the oil in hopes it will eliminate the oily taste.

Have you tried substituting applesauce for oil in a baking recipe? How did the change affect the overall result?

Erin Mann is a lover of all things cake and welcomes your baking wisdom. E-mail her at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter. Facebook users can also keep up-to-date with A CAKE A WEEK by joining the group.