Today’s cake was another first attempt at a recipe, in the form of an Apple, Cranberry and Cider Cake. I wanted to do something without icing this week, and toyed with the idea of baking some kind of tea bread. However, I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't exciting enough, and certainly not blogworthy. No one ever wrote home about Bran Loaf now did they? Nice as it is….
It felt a bit wrong to be opening a can of Strongbow at 9:00am, but as it was in the name of baking and not on a park bench, I decided it was acceptable. I let chopped apple, dried cranberries and cider simmer away on the stove for five minutes, until the apple softened, the cranberries plumped, and the kitchen took on the smell of a brewery. I allowed this to cool while I nipped out to Spar for emergency eggs, and when I returned I prepared the spring form tin and fired up the oven to 180.
Next I added ground cinnamon and muscavado sugar to the flour, and poured in the melted butter and beaten eggs - being careful not to create an omelette. I then stirred in the stewed apple, cranberry, and cider concoction and poured into the tin. Last but not least, I cored a couple of pink lady apples and sliced them very thinly to arrange on the top of the mixture. I decided to scatter some dried cranberries on top to disguise the fact I made a mess of coring the apples :) It worked a treat, you wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you!
When the cake came out of the oven approximately an hour later, I brushed apricot jam over the top to give a lovely caramelized effect that yelled "Eat me, eat me!" It was at this point I realised the recipe specified "wait until the cake has cooled completely" before eating. Torture! Tobey took the side of the recipe and thought we should wait, which I was very surprised about. I was relying on him to say "Nah, lets just eat it now." In the end we reached a compromise of waiting half an hour for it to cool. This then turned into 15 minutes after I began climbing the walls.
I sliced through the caramelized apple topping, and then it was like cutting through velvet. The sponge was densely packed with apple and cranberry goodness, and each mouthful was infused with a rich flavour from the cinnamon and cider combo. My mouth is watering just describing it! Later on we had a piece when it had cooled completely - as the recipe intended. It tasted just as good, but had taken on a different texture since the apples had set into the sponge. This also made it easier to slice. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to top this next Saturday, but I have a week to plan. Ideas please!
