Alternative apple cake

We had two apples lying around and I had a craving for baking and eating something sweet. That much coincidence must lead to an apple dessert, don't you think? 

I saw a recipe for an Irish apple cake on The Baker Upstairs that looked lovely and I used the recipe for my version of the cake. I adapted it a bit to: (a) include some almonds that were lying around, (b) add some wholesomeness by adding oats to the flour content and (c) adding some vanilla too. My fourth alternation (my idea was to add some raisins to the apple mixture - I personally love the combination of apples and raisins ...) didn't get the approval of my dad and sister so wasn't executed. 
So the original recipe was only a guideline to the measurements for me :)

It's result was a tasty cake that wasn't heavy at all. 

Ingredients:
- 2 apples
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 5 tablespoons oats, ground to resemble flour
- 4 tablespoons ground almonds
- 110 grams plain flour
- 50 grams vanilla pudding powder
- 150 grams white sugar
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 egg
- 125 ml milk

How to:
First butter and flour a round cake tin (diameter of about 28 cm). Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Cut the apples in small cubes and mix them with the two teaspoons of sugar and the cinnamon.
Mix the flour, the vanilla powder, baking powder, the sugar, ground oats and ground almonds.
Put the 8 tablespoons of butter in the flour mixture and mix it through by hand so that a course mixture is formed.
Mix the milk and the egg with a fork and add this to the rest of the ingredients. Then, mix until just combined.
Put 2/3 of the batter in the cake tin and spread the batter to cover the whole surface.
Then scatter the apple mixture on top of the batter. With a spoon, put some dollops of the rest of the batter on top of the apples. Try to spread the remaining batter as well as you can to cover the apples.
Put in the over for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
Serve slightly cooled. 

Smakelijk!

Simple apple and raisin cake

I was looking at half an apple my sister had left behind yesterday. She is allergic to apples but like to eat them so she eats half of an apple to avoid the most severe reactions but then we're left with left-overs. I'm not the kind of person to throw away food so I needed to rescue the apple from the trash (just saying: we wouldn't throw it in the trash, any left-over apple would be donated to the garden birds). 

Apple, some cinnamon and raisins make a perfect combination and a cake the perfect way to incorporate all of these ingredients.

This is a very basic cake recipe. It really is a granny's recipe and the beauty of it is that you can add anything - chocolate chips, apple slices, raisins and other dried fruits, ... - to it, just to your own taste. 

Ingredients:
- 4 eggs, separated
- 150 grams plain flour
- 50 grams instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 packet of baking powder (15 grams)
- 200 grams white sugar
- 1 splash of vanilla essence
- 140 grams butter
- 1 full hand of raisins
- 1/2 big apple or 1 small apple
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon mixed with 1 tablespoon of white sugar

How to:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Soak the raisins in some water in a small bowl. Cut the apple into small cubes and mix with the cinnamon sugar.
Mix the butter and the sugar until soft. You see I don't own a Kitchen Aid so I do a real work out when making a cake ;)

One thing that's great about Summer (or Summer temperatures) - apart from the fact that it's simply the best season of them all - is that when you make a cake and want to soften some butter and mix it with sugar, you can simply set the bowl on the garden table and within a fraction of the usual time it's soft and ready. 

Add the vanilla essence to it and mix well. Add the egg yolks until incorporated.
Put the flour, baking powder and pudding mix to the batter and mix very well until no lumps remain. Then add the raisins (without the soaking water!).
Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently stir them into the rest of the batter.

Butter and flour a cake tin and put the batter in it. Spread the batter gently so that the top is evened out. Spread the apple cubes on top. 

Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is set, golden brown and until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.  

Take out of the oven, let it cool completely and take out of the cake tin. 

Smakelijk!