National Trust Challenge part 4 - Dorset Apple Cake

I live on the boarder of Somerset and Dorset which an amazing part of the world. So I felt like I had to make this recipe, it had nothing to do with the fact that our fruit bowl was over run by apples for some reason this week.

I was very lucky as my parents were visiting us this weekend and my mum bought me a bundt tin for mothers day

So I had to use this to make the cake, I decided to make this slightly at the last minuet as we had someone leaving at work so I did not have the cider that it called for or even apple juice which I think would have worked just as well. I used water which did not have any negative effects on the taste or the consistency.

Again this was a very easy cake to make, I think it took me more time to peal and chop the apples than it do to make the rest of the cake. I used mainly wholemeal flour with a small amount of plain flour and more apples than it said (as we had loads) but it did work. 

Here is my version of the recipe which comes from The National Trust Complete Traditional Cook Book by Sarah Eddington.

3 apples peeled and chopped

50g of mixed dried fruit

1/4 pint water, apple juice or cider (whatever you fancy or have to hand) 

110g butter

110g brown sugar

2 eggs

150g wholemeal flour

75g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Soak the apple and dried fruit in the water/apple juice/cider while you cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time then sift in the dry ingredients. Fold in the apples, dried fruit and the liquid then spoon into a baking tin. 

Bake at 180 for 30 - 40 minutes. until golden brown. 

It is very tasty with a cup of tea, and I wasn't the only one with a thought of cake in the office on Tuesday 

But these were three very healthy cakes, we had carrot cake, lemon drizzle and apple cake. Think they must be at least some of our 7 a day!

For more National Trust recipes look here

Bundt love

Over the past couple of months I have noticed that bundt cakes have become more predominate on social media and more people have been posting new recipes for them. I have therefore spent the last few months looking at all the different bundt pans and wishing I had one! 
Now for those of you who have no clue what a bundt cake is then here is the Wikipedia description: "A cake that is baked in a Bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive ring shape. The shape is inspired by a traditional European fruitcake known as Gugelhupf, but Bundt cakes are not generally associated with any single recipe. The style of mold in North America was popularised in the 1950s and 60s, after cookware manufacturer Nordic Ware trademarked the name "Bundt" and began producing Bundt pans from cast aluminum"  

Now I have also spent many hours looking at the Nordic Ware website trying to pick one pan so I can find out how much the shipping is over to the UK but failing, there are so many fantastic shapes that picking one is proving too hard to do. At the moment I have got it down to 2, the Heritage and the Jubilee

 

But this does change on a daily basis!

I have found in my extensive collection of cake tins a mini bundt pan which is the size of a cupcake tray and have 6 mini bundt holes in it so I have been using this to try out some of the recipes I have seen. 

Last week I made chocolate bundts and added micro eggs and decorated them in a Cadbury's Cream egg style 

Tonight I came home and was going to make banana bundt cakes I had put a bunch of very ripe bananas in the freezer a few weeks ago to try and save them rather than throwing them away but when I got home having got them out of the freezer this morning they were pretty much liquid so I had to change my plans and decided on an apple and cinnamon recipe from the Martha Stewart website   

I halved the recipe after I had converted all the measurements into grams to make my easier, again it was a very easy recipe. I think it took me more time to peal and chop the apples than it did to mix everything together. My greasing the tin was not very good this time (must buy myself some Cake Release) so they did not come out as easily as the last lot but I'm sure it will not spoil the taste. 

And my biggest critic was happy as he polished one off for his pudding tonight. 

I have promised myself that I will treat myself to a bundt pan as soon as I can decide which one I want!