Pam's Apple Cake

I now plan to do something I despise: review a recipe that I have changed beyond all recognition.

As I said yesterday, I made an apple cake. I used a recipe from a newish cookbook which I'm really enjoying - Cakes:River Cottage Handbook #8  by Pam Corbin. The book ought to be purchased because it is certainly worth owning. But I'll let you in on a little secret: you can see many of the recipes here, thanks to Google Books. This apple cake was on page 138, just in case you really wanted to know. ;)

I did as the recipe said except:

• instead of part whole meal and part plain, I used all plain flour,
• instead of a coarse dice of the apples, I used grated (juice squeezed out) because its what I had stored in the freezer from last fall,
• I left out the cloves and added cardamom and allspice,
• and I did not put sliced apples on top but I did reduce the squeezed-out apple juice to a syrup and drizzled that over the top when it came out of the oven. 

All that said, it was good. I was a bit surprised in the moment, but in hindsight not at all, that the cake was not very sweet. It is a PERFECT cake to pass as breakfast, or snack, or something to wash down with your coffee. A friend said that it was a cake that made you want a glass of milk without being a cake that needed a glass of milk. I think I'd like it better with part wholemeal, to make it even more breakfast-y. Don't put in the cardamom, I really think it should be left to pears, not apples. Do put in the cloves.

I suppose in summary, this is a note to my future self saying, "Make the cake, just do as the recipe says."

Peas, please!

I'm happy to be blogging from my phone. :) I will attempt to not publish any egregious auto correct errors. I can't promise anything, though.

Today we planted peas. I've never tried peas before and I can't recall my parents growing them when I was young. Can you believe its that time already?
We've put in three kinds: green arrow (heirloom shell type), burpeeana (conventional shell type), and sugar snap (eat the pod type). Sixty days from now we should be in pea heaven. If I were more patient I would have started only a few seeds of each kind this week and done the same two weeks from now. But no, slow and methodical? I'm not feeling it.
Now I'm off to make an apple cake from last fall's frozen apples.  Interesting dichotomy of the days...

 

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