There are so many tv cooking competitions at the moment; I love them all; the usual ready steady and adapted models, and not only masterchef but also the 'british dish' one and the 'bake off' which has just finished. We are a land of obsessive cooks. Yet flats are being built now without dining rooms/areas or even kitchens as people are assumed to need just a microwave and a sofa.
I was stunned by the bakers - so clever and so technical,some of them at least. I have never entirely mastered yeast cookery (cries off of 'what do you mean entirely'!) and rarely attempt anything that requires four complex stages and a steady hand with the icing bag. My mum used to make us fresh doughnuts served hot with hot jam sauce as a winter treat but I have always been too busy etc etc to try this out for myself. So it is time for a bit more effort all round. Maybe all over the country people are saying I must try harder. In the meantime, I am going to bake a quick, easy and comforting cake which is reliable and doesn't need a steady hand.
Apple Spice Cake
The only difficult part of this recipe is that you need 1/2 pint apple puree. If you have become an apple puree addict like me and mine, which is I know unlikely, you will have lots stashed in the freezer especially at this time of year. I have been given bags of windfalls by kind people who are only too glad to get rid of their surplus crop and happen to know we do something strange with them at our house. If this is not the case for you, stew some cookers with as little water as you can manage, put the mush through a sieve and cool before you try the recipe out.
5oz soft butter
1/2 pint thick apple puree, unsweetened or ready prepared
8 oz sugar (if your puree is sweetened already, as mine will be, reduce this to 6 oz)
9 oz plain flour sieved together with:
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1 tsp bicarb
plus
1 egg
Optional - 1 oz raisins or chopped walnuts or both
I was stunned by the bakers - so clever and so technical,some of them at least. I have never entirely mastered yeast cookery (cries off of 'what do you mean entirely'!) and rarely attempt anything that requires four complex stages and a steady hand with the icing bag. My mum used to make us fresh doughnuts served hot with hot jam sauce as a winter treat but I have always been too busy etc etc to try this out for myself. So it is time for a bit more effort all round. Maybe all over the country people are saying I must try harder. In the meantime, I am going to bake a quick, easy and comforting cake which is reliable and doesn't need a steady hand.
Apple Spice Cake
The only difficult part of this recipe is that you need 1/2 pint apple puree. If you have become an apple puree addict like me and mine, which is I know unlikely, you will have lots stashed in the freezer especially at this time of year. I have been given bags of windfalls by kind people who are only too glad to get rid of their surplus crop and happen to know we do something strange with them at our house. If this is not the case for you, stew some cookers with as little water as you can manage, put the mush through a sieve and cool before you try the recipe out.
5oz soft butter
1/2 pint thick apple puree, unsweetened or ready prepared
8 oz sugar (if your puree is sweetened already, as mine will be, reduce this to 6 oz)
9 oz plain flour sieved together with:
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1 tsp bicarb
plus
1 egg
Optional - 1 oz raisins or chopped walnuts or both
- Beat all the ingredients together for 2/3 minutes. You could use a processor for this as I do for lots of things, but a hand held electric whisk produces a lighter cake - and a wooden spoon is perfectly fine. You need, as with all cakes, to end up with a light soft mixture which drops off the spoon gently.
- Fold in your nuts or raisins if you are using them - they just add a little texture but are not vital.
- Taste the mixture- this is a spice cake and the flavour, as with everything you cook, needs to please you. At this stage, check that you like it. You might want to add a tiny bit more cinnamon, for instance.
- Line a 7'' deep cake tin with greaseproof and gently put the mixture into it and smooth the top.
- Bake 1 - 1/2 hours at No 4/150, putting greaseproof over the top if it seems to be getting rather too brown after the first hour.
- Cool and then store it in a tin.
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