Lady Lunchalot

Wonderful Ken gave O and I the hugest bag of the cutest, tiniest apples imaginable from his tree. There were so many apples I could barely lift the bag! Some of them were little bigger than a pingpong ball, but each weensy little apple was chock full of fresh autumn apple flavour.

I took half the load into the office, but there was still an overflowing fruit bowl on my kitchen bench. I spent a few days just enjoying the apple-icious scent in my kitchen, and then came to the conclusion that they weren’t getting any younger and I’d better cook something.

One of my colleagues got married recently, and brought in some of his leftover wedding cake to the office. It was the lightest, fluffiest cake I have ever eaten. Apple and rhubarb from (I think) Patersons Cakes in Windsor, one of my favourite cake shops who almost supplied my own wedding cake, except they were on the other side of town. One bite of that cake and I reluctantly announced to the whole office that they REALLY needed to have a slice. I should have kept my trap shut and kept it all to myself!

So with a rainy afternoon to myself and a kitchen full of apples, what else was a girl to do but bake a couple of apple cakes?

After researching a few recipes, I ended up settling on one from The Silver Spoon, with a few tweaks of course. It seemed like a nice, plain straightforward cake, which was perfect, because I wanted the apples to be the star of the show.

This is a very simple cake. It’s not overly sweet, and the plainish flavour of the cake is the perfect vehicle for enjoying the gooeyness of the apples. A great cake to enjoy with an afternoon coffee.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 80g butter
• 300g self raising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 diced apples (I used about 6 because mine were so teensy)

Method

Whip the eggs with the sugar until fluffy and pale. Beat in the butter. (Though next time I try this I will cream the butter and sugar first, then add the eggs. The butter didn’t incorporate well enough for my liking). Sift in the flour, then gently mix the apples. I also added in a few sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg with the flour.

Pour into a prepared tin and bake at 180 for 40 mins.