Spiced Apple Cake

I went around work today telling everyone I’d made sugar free Spiced Apple Cake. “The cake is naturally sweetened by the apples” is what I said; “it’s so healthy, it’s like muesli” I said. Dear everyone I work with, I offer my most abject apology for the sieve that is my short term memory. I am nothing but a liar. Liar. Liar. Pants. On fire. When talking about the cake today, I’d somehow forgotten that while I may not have added sugar, I had certainly included the ½ cup of golden syrup as listed in the recipe. Golden syrup is of course a delicious and sticky refined sugar product. And now I’ve given my workplace diabetes. Sorry…

You may wonder why I’ve included in the photo a couple of books, I had these out for reading at breakfast and they ended up in the background by accident. I liked that they were there so with a bit of arranging and primping to make them sit ‘just so’, here they are. Those of you who know me in person will not be surprised that I read at any possible moment. I read books while eating breakfast, while making dinner, while watching TV, while walking. If I had a bathtub I’d definitely be reading while having a bubbly soak. Reading in the toilet is the exception though, I very much draw the line there! Eww, sorry, yuck. So anyway, my breakfast reading at the moment is a favourite author of mine — Edgar Allan Poe — I’m halfway through ‘The Balloon Hoax’ which is mildly entertaining, but not terribly strongly written. Amusing it would have been at the time of publication, it’s not as entertaining as I’d find something written in this century, or even the last! My god how is it 2013 already? I’ll continue with it of course, but I’m not totally loving it. Of course, Poe is best known for his dark poem ‘The Raven’, first published in 1845. It’s wonderful and I urge you all to give it a go. It’s somewhat appropriate too for my breakfast reading, as there seem to be a family of crows that sit on my back fence each morning who caw quite horribly and loudly. I wish for them to all develop laryngitis seeing their birdsong lacks any elegance or melodic beauty.

Goodness, I really have digressed. Back to the cake! This recipe makes for a pretty giant cake. I cut it up into about 35 pieces, and I STILL have leftovers. Some of my colleagues helpfully had 3 pieces. You know who you are. I love you for loving my food! Thank you.

Spiced Apple Cake

2 large apples

115g butter

¾ cup brown sugar

1 egg

½ cup golden syrup

3 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp. bicarbonate soda

1 tsp. mixed spices

pinch salt

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Grease and paper a shallow baking dish.

Peel, core and chop the apples. Cook in a small amount of water on stovetop until tender (approx. 5-8 minutes).

Rub the butter and brown sugar until it's a bit crumbly (it may not get crumbly and I think that's OK). Add the beaten egg to mixture.

Add bicarbonate of soda to the cooked apple mixture and whisk until frothy (approx. 1 minute).

Add all the ingredients together, pour into prepared baking tray and cook for 30 minutes. 

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.