An apple cake to celebrate ten years of blogging
Ten years ago Ben and I were living in a tiny apartment not too far from the city. It had shaggy green carpet and a poorly ventilated kitchen that smelt, at once, like every single meal that had ever been made in it. We didn’t mind, though; the rent was cheap and we could walk to the train station and shops. On the weekends we would wander down to buy coffee and spanakopita from a local cafe, along with a newspaper (an actual newspaper - remember those?). We’d take it all back to our apartment and have our morning meal sitting at a little table in the room with that shaggy green carpet.
It was in that room that I told Ben I was going to start a blog. At the time I was following 101 Cookbooks and Chocolate and Zucchini; I would read their work religiously - I couldn’t get enough - and I thought, this is what I want to do . And so, I started filling a notebook with ideas for posts and, importantly, a name. I thought perhaps something to do with mulberries. Or mascarpone. Maybe spaghetti. I do love spaghetti.
I don’t recall how it came to me, but at some point I remembered my childhood habit of eating apples in bed while reading. According to my mother I would pop the apple cores under my bed once I was finished with them. Whenever I think of this story, I’m incredulous - how could I have done that? But indeed it’s true. I like to think I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t think about what I was doing. There is also the possibility that I was just lazy. Either way, apples under my bed seemed the perfect name. And so it began, ten years ago, with a post about an apple cake.
Yesterday while Walt napped I made that same apple cake. Well, not that precise recipe. These days I do things a little differently. I add even more diced apple and a touch less sugar. I’ve let go of the sultanas and the spice I use is a cardamom/ginger blend. It’s really good. It’s also not really my cake - it’s my mum’s. She is the one who first introduced me to the Beechworth apple cake recipe, along with her alterations. And she is the one I called yesterday to confirm how many apples she’s using these days, and whether she really only uses one egg (she does). Thank you, mum. For everything. Today, while stirring the apple, sugar and butter together, I kept looking at Joan. She was at my side, chasing sugar crystals around the bench with a piece of apple peel. Ten years on and I’m a mum now, too. I have a daughter. And she’s eating apples while I show her how to grease a baking dish.
Apple Cake
Adapted from Carolynne Collier's Beechworth/Stanley Spicy Apple Cake
6-7 medium cooking apples
125g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
1 & 1/2 cups spelt flour
3/4 cup golden caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon spice blend** of ground cardamom + ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A small pinch of fine sea salt
Optional: double cream to serve
* you can use plain flour.
** if you don’t have this sort of spice blend you could use allspice or more cinnamon.
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a 20cm round baking dish with butter.
2. Peel and dice the apples, putting them in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, stir to coat and set aside for a few minutes while you melt the butter in a small saucepan.
2. Pour the melted butter over the apples and stir to coat. Add the beaten egg and stir again.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the apple mixture, stirring until just mixed. It will seem as though there is hardly any batter, only apples - that’s how it should be.
4. Pour the cake mixture into the greased baking dish, making sure the flour part of the mixture is spread evenly amongst the apple chunks. Smooth the top with a spoon.
5. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool for 10 mins before slicing and serving.
Heidi xo