Snickerdoodle Apple cake

I love the flavours of snickerdoodles - a classic American cookie which I first discovered thanks to Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess. For the non-US readers in the house, these have nothing to do with Snickers bars, there is not a peanut or chocolate in sight. Instead a simple, rather old fashioned mix of some of my favourite spices: vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. And they're all flavours that go superbly well with apples... so a new recipe idea was formed!

We are really lucky that my father in law is an incredible grower of produce... but often that means that at this time of year we have a bags of produce that we can't eat, that need turning into something when they're a little past their best. Apples are one of those - our kids love crisp juicy apples, but after a couple of weeks home grown apples are soft and a little fluffy. Or are starting to get brown bits here and there. 

This recipe is great for using up eating apples that have gone this way in, and almost everyone in the family loves it. My kids don't like cinnamon, so this is a way I can make a cake that both adults and kids love - you can just slice the spice top off for fussy eaters.

Ingredients

150g soft butter
170g caster sugar 
200g plain flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3 lg eggs
2 tbsp full fat milk
3 med eating apples, peeled, cored, brown bits cut out, and sliced into 1 inch chunks.

Preheat oven to 180C (170 fan)

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric whisk. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the apple) whisk till light and well combined. Stir through the apple with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Line a large loaf pan or 9 inch, deep cake tin. Tip in the mixture, Smooth it off. 

Cook for 15 mins, then cover with foil, and cook for an extra 20-30 mins - check after the second 20 mins with a skewer - to see if it's done, if not return with foil still on. Any wobbly or wet mix coming out on the skewer and it's not done.

When cooked remove from tin and sprinkle with 2 tbsp demerara or caster sugar or a mix. 5 gratings nutmeg and 1/2 - 1 tsp ground cinnamon depending on how much you like it.

Eat warm with ice cream. Or cold. Keeps 3-4 days well.

(Gluten Free Note: I have made this with my gluten free flour mix - see here - it's fine... but much nicer not GF, as it needs quite a long bake, which doesn't work so well for GF flours.)

Cake for Breakfast: Popple Cake

This is a breakfast cake! Well, I ate it for breakfast, still warm from the oven. But it's delicious at coffee break or tea time too. I know, I tried it then too!!

What is a breakfast cake? Well it's higher in nutrients, contains fruit and, is lower in butter, and is not iced. It contains all the ingredients people might eat for breakfast: wheat flour, oats, fruit, eggs, buttermilk... but in cake form. It is about as worthy as cake gets. Except it doesn't taste worthy It is moist and spiced, bejewelled with plump cranberries and oh so more-ish.

I made it to use up a large jar of apple puree that I had bought for the baby. But homemade stewed apple would be perfect too, just make sure it's not too sweet.

And the name? Porridge + apple. See I told you it was healthy! It is adapted from Beth Hensperger's lovely Bread for Breakfast, another great American baking resource. So cup measures at the ready!! (I know it looks like quite a list of ingredients, but the method is simplicity itself.)