Aunt Ligita's Latvian Apple Cake

Who was Aunt Ligita? What makes this cake Latvian?
I have so many questions!
With a little sleuthing and googling, I was able to find this recipe on several web sites and to my dismay, none of them mentioned a Latvian lineage for this cake...
Nonetheless, this is a delicious cake, and it's a snap to make.

Ligita's Quick Apple Cake
from: Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax

Ingredients
3 medium-size tart apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
Vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional, for the cholesterol conscious)

METHOD:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 10-inch Pyrex pie pan.
2. Toss the apples in a bowl with the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the cinnamon. Spread the apples evenly in the prepared pan.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until lightly golden, about 7 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning. Pour the clear, browned butter into a bowl, leaving any sediment or foam in the pan.
4. Stir the 3/4 cup sugar into the butter. Gently stir in the eggs; stir in the flour until blended. Spoon the batter evenly over the apples and spread into a layer. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
5. Bake until lightly golden and crusty, 40 to 45 minutes.
6. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into wedges and serve from the pan warm or at room temperature, with vanilla ice cream.
YIELD: One 10-inch single layer cake; serves 8

NOTES:
This cake is delicious right out of the oven, with a delicate sugar crust on top and delightfully fluffy topping, so I hope you've got some restraint. As it cools, the topping becomes more dense. When making this, I clarified/browned the butter as a first step, so it could cool while I prepared the apples. Other than this, I can only comment on my Mom's adaptation of this recipe (which also yields a very tasty dessert)... She substitutes Smart Balance for the butter, therefore I'm guessing that she can't do the browning step. This seems like an OK substitution, except that Smart Balance is salted, and I prefer to use unsalted butter in desserts. Oddly, her recipe also only contains one egg! Either this was an error, or she is taking cholesterol consciousness to a new level.

ENJOY, and... See you online and often.