Hungry bears

I ate a cake the other day.

I probably should have stopped after the first half, but it was a small cake — only about the size of a loaf of bread — so there didn’t seem to be much point.

I tell myself that a lot at this time of year: Why resist temptation today if I’m just going to eat the other half tomorrow?

That kind of logic is a tell-tale symptom of what I think of as “hibernation mode.” It’s a mindset I get into in the fall and winter that causes me to abandon all restraint and pack on the calories.

This food craving is, literally, all-consuming. Unless I pay strict attention, I’ll almost unconsciously add things to the cart when I go grocery shopping. I get to the checkout and am shocked at the amount of sweets and junk food that made it into the bag. How did that happen?

I don’t put any of it back, though.

I’m not sure if there’s a biological basis for this feeding frenzy. Maybe my inner caveman is remembering some long-ago season of discontent when he had to eat twigs and shoe leather and Brussels sprouts just to survive until spring.

Or maybe my caveman is simply a master manipulator, using psychological tricks to get me to choose sugary treats over that perfectly good stalk of celery in the fridge.

Yeah, that’s it.

As director of research at Washington State University’s Bear Center, Charles Robbins deals with hibernation on an annual basis.

The grizzlies he monitors are always interested in food, he said, but there’s a noticeable uptick in the fall.

“Their hunger increases dramatically starting around Aug. 1, just when berries, salmon and many fall food resources start becoming available,” Robbins said in an email. “For our captive bears, they become much more vocal. They let us know that they’re hungry and expect second helpings.”

A reasonable diet for humans might be about 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day, he said. For grizzlies, in the months before hibernation, it’s eight times that amount.

“I.e., bottomless pits,” Robbins said. “Large male grizzlies eating at that level can gain 10 to 12 pounds per day.”

Looked at that way, one little ol’ cake hardly seems excessive.

Robbins said there’s at least some evidence that evolution plays a role in human overeating.

“All of us likely have genes that may trigger a desire to put on extra pounds,” he said.

Annie Roe, director of the Eat Smart Idaho Extension program at the University of Idaho, also noted that some studies suggest colder temperatures may affect hunger signals.

However, “I’d question whether that’s really a factor in modern society,” she said. “Temperature changes outside don’t change the temperature inside.”

Roe said she thinks much of the overeating we do — particularly during the holiday season — is behavioral in nature: We spend more time socializing, going to Christmas or New Year’s parties, so we have more opportunities to eat, along with added social expectations to partake.

“As nutritionists, we encourage people to enjoy food, while being mindful of their energy balance,” she said. “Be mindful when going to holiday parties. Either take smaller portions or incorporate more activity into your day, versus just eating and hibernating.”

Although Roe dashed cold water on my “blame your food-insecure inner caveman” theory, I took full advantage of her holiday party explanation to blame my friends instead.

After all, the only reason I made the cake was because I got invited to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving. So of course I had to try the recipe out first, to make sure it hadn’t spoiled over time. Nothing worse than bringing a subpar cake when you’re hoping to get invited back next year.

Fortunately, the recipe was still good. The cake is delicious warm or cold — and has more apples in it than sugar, which in my book qualifies as health food.

Two final notes:

First, the quantities listed are reasonably accurate, except for the spices. Given my “more is always better, except for vegetables” philosophy, I tend to use cinnamon and cloves in quantities that make good bakers choke. If the flour doesn’t have a distinct brown tinge after they’re stirred in, then add more spices.

As with any recipe, though, feel free to adjust it to your individual tastes.

Second, I have no idea where this recipe originally came from. I don’t remember ever having apple cake until a few years ago, when I was too lazy to make apple pie and made this instead.

However, I saw a number of online recipes for similar cakes. One ditched the butterscotch sauce, but added a luscious-looking swirl of cinnamon and brown sugar in its place. Another didn’t include any spices, in some lame purist attempt to “let the apples shine.”

I’m not sure either innovation is an improvement. In the interest of doing thorough research, though, I plan to try them both out in the coming months.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter and flour a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.

For the cake:

Peel, core and dice the apples.

Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda.

Mix together the melted butter and sugar. Continue to mix while adding the eggs one at a time, along with the vanilla extract.

Stir in the dry ingredients. The batter will be thick — more like a cookie batter than something that pours easily. There’s probably something you could do about that. Add a few teaspoons of milk? What do I know? I’m better at eating than baking.

Mix in the apples, then the walnuts and raisins.

Scoop and pack the batter into the baking pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the butterscotch sauce:

On a stovetop, heat the butter in a saucepan. When it’s mostly melted, add the brown sugar. Continue heating until the mixture is hot.

Mix in the vanilla.

Stir in the heavy cream and heat to a boil. Watch carefully as the mixture will expand when it starts to boil.

Remove from heat.

When the cake is done and still warm, poke a series of holes in the top.

Pour the warm butterscotch sauce over the cake, allowing it to ooze down into the holes. If desired, reserve some of the sauce to drizzle over the top just before eating.

I have no idea how long the cake stays fresh in the refrigerator. If you did your job right, it won’t last long enough for that to be an issue. !

Spence covered government and politics for the Lewiston Tribune for 14 years before retiring at the end of 2022. He walked 800 miles through Europe last summer, ate multiple desserts every day and still lost 44 pounds. It was heaven.