For some reason, I didn't expect this cake to turn out so huge. Nor did I expect to have my worst baking day ever on Friday and throw 3 lots of cake in the bin in frustration !
Friday just WASN'T my day ... I started off making a carrot cake in a
10" round silicone mould, which is a core recipe I use often for large cakes and muffins. It turned out beautifully as per normal. I then made a spiced pineapple and coconut cake to put on top to layer with. That would have been perfect. It looked fab by eye - but on turning out, wasn't quite cooked and the whole thing disintegrated in front of me. This was made worse by the fact I was trying to turn out on to the top of the iced
carrot cake. The whole thing was then a complete write off and ended up in the bin. Teach me not to test it when taking out the oven !
Third cake was another spiced coconut and pineapple concoction..... BUT I forgot to put in the eggs. My 3rd disaster !
By this point, I'd run out of both pineapple and coconut. It was just as well we had a glut of eggs and the chickens had done us proud :-P
Attempt 4 created a spiced apple cake which turned out truly yummy and was demolished by office staff on Saturday morning. There was still stacks of it left and that came on a Saturday afternoon picnic to the park with my friend (Nicky) and our toddlers. There was so much of it - that we shared it with other visitors to the park too ! After all - they'd be mad to turn down cake, wouldn't they ?
I made this in a new mould we have in manufacture which should be available at the end of May. It's a
large sunflower silicone bakeware mould with double layered petals for extra effect. It looks stunning plain or dusted with icing sugar - you really don't want to do much to it at all.
You'll see I've just added all the new moulds coming in May to the website - these are not yet available and I need to work through measurements, weights etc when they arrive.
Recipe
Ingredients
300g cooking apples - peeled, cored and small diced
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
375 g all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
400g granulated sugar
250 ml vegetable oil
60ml milk
3 tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 180deg C (fan)
In a medium bowl, mix the chopped apples, spices and sugar and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the wet ingredients. Sift in dry ingredients and beat on low with electric mixer until all combined.
Pour 1/3 of the cake batter into the mould or tin. It's wise to grease brand new silicone moulds for the first time - especially if the cake mix has a high sugar content. The sugar wasn't too bad in this one, so I didn't bother and it came out just fine.
Mix the apples into the remaining batter and pour into the mould. The reason I've done this is to get a nice smooth top to the cake after turning out - rather than bits of apple spoiling the look of the top of my cake.
This will take 1hour to cook in a 10" tube / bundt pan - or approx 1hour 20 mins in a standard circular cake mould / tin.
Allow to cool until warm and then turn out on a wire rack. When totally cool, dust with icing sugar or glaze as required. Easily serves 12 > 14
This cake eats even better on day 2. My little cake tester (Oliver) had a bit of the cut slice on the Friday afternoon to give it a seal of approval and the rest sat waiting until Saturday. It was definately best the next day after the apples had a chance to release some more moisture. I'm afraid there are no photos of the cake in the park !
