A little recipe for the Autumn….

Good morning my fellow bakers, another Ibiza week passes by and as I write this Autumn is approaching us, the American’s aptly call it the ‘fall’ As it is the time the ripe plump fruits fall from the trees.
Wherever we are fruits such as apples are perfect for baking. In my youth the apples would be collected for the winter stock pile by making jams, preserves, pies, cakes, etc. The left over apples would then be stored in boxes wrapped in newspaper, with the hope that they would last well into the winter months, there was only a rare chance of having fruits from anywhere else in the world. Of course now all these fruits are available year round, from some country or another, with new methods these fruits are grown most of the year too, including strawberries, with some strawberry plants producing fruit for 9 months of the year! Hence we see them on the supermarket shelves the majority of the time.
So this week I will revert to tradition and give a real Autumn recipe of an apple and cinnamon cake, we can class this as a healthy recipe! As an apple a day and a teaspoon of cinnamon are both well renowned for being good healthy foods to help prevent all sorts of ailments, so go ahead and bake this lovely treat which is perfect served warm with fresh cream and there is no need to feel to guilty about eating it.
Apple and Cinnamon cake.
Prepare a 23cm baking tin with a baking sheet or grease then dust with flour.
Pre heat the oven to 180c or 160c fan oven
Ingredients:
250g butter
250g muscovado sugar (if it is difficult to come by use the ‘brown sugar available in most supermarkets)
4 large eggs at room tempurature of course!!
250g of self-raising flour preferably homepride.
2 teaspoons of baking powder
450g of apples peeled, cored and grated. Not taken from the fridge!
1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon.
125g walnuts chopped
125g. sultanas.
Mix the sugar with the butter until light and fluffy, then gradually add the lightly beaten eggs slowly so that the mixture doesn’t curdle, add a small amount of the flour if this should start to happen.
Now using a metal spoon add the sieved flour, cinnamon and baking powder, fold this into the mixture so as not too loose too much of the precious air, now gently stir in the grated apple, sultanas and walnuts. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin then place in the centre of the oven for 1 ½ hours, until it is well risen and golden, check with a skewer to make sure the cake is cooked through. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!!
Till next week Ibiza’s Queen of Cakes. Xx