Friday 12 September 2014

Apple Cake

I feel the need to share this recipe.

I was sat reading through a couple of recipe books a couple of days ago.
Books I'd picked up in the US.
One is from the nicest B&B that I could ever possibly imagine.
It would be the main reason that we would visit Santa Monica in LA again.
Not that we didn't like Santa Monica, we loved it, but this B&B was just something else.  
You can read about it here.
They are a chain called 'Four Sisters'.
We would love to visit their other locations.
One of the things we loved about our stay was the home baked goodies that were always being baked and were on offer for you to help yourself.
The kitchen door was open and the place just smelt so good.
Freshly baked cookies in your room and we were told to help ourselves to the pantry goodies, especially if we fancied a midnight snack : )

After experiencing their amazing breakfasts and the wine and cheese evenings, which were complimentary and didn't just consist of wine and cheese, we are taking baked breads, crackers, olives, salads, fresh dips. It was divine.

Naturally being a bit of a foodie and loving to cook and bake myself I bought their cookbook home.
Yesterday I made the Apple Cake.

 
Now it says Apple Coffeecake, but I can not see the coffee and neither did I add any. 
I hope you can read the recipe from the photo.
 
Now a few things that I did change and to be honest I need to make some more changes as it didn't quite go to plan.
 
It says to bake in a 8x8'' tray. My smallest was 10x10'' so I popped it in a loaf tin and baked on 400f (200C) as instructed to do so for 20mins.
It was starting to blacken on top after the 20mins and was still very wet inside when I tested it.
So I turned it down to 180c for a further 10-15 mins, keeping going back to check.
 
I think next time I will put it all in a tray and not in a loaf tin.
 
Another change, I replaced the 1/4 cup of butter for veg oil to go in the cake batter.   
I just finds this moistens the cake more.
I also added 1/2 tsp of ground ginger to go in with the cinnamon.
 
Oh and for the US recipes, when it says flour, that's just plain flour to us.
 
Now this bit I found strange.
You mix up the dry in one bowl and the wet in another and then add the wet to the dry. You then pour in the cake tin.
That's fine.
But you then melt 6 tblsp oF butter and mix with the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.
It's then poured over the top of the cake batter.
 
This cake smelt amazing and it looked pretty good too.
 
 
As it needed to be left in longer it did look a little black on top. So I dusted with icing sugar : )
It's all about covering up when it comes to baking and crafts!!
Despite the colour under the sugar it was so crisp because of the sugar and butter mixture that was poured over. It didn't taste burnt at all.
 
I was going to a friends for afternoon tea and took it over whilst still hot. It was like eating hot cinnamon buns. A little crisp, but so hot and gooey inside and the cinnamon was yummy.
 
We have all our neighbours coming over tomorrow night and I have a huge chill
in the crockpot right now and will be making a double batch of this cake too which I plan to serve whilst still hot.   
I'm already excited!!
 
Let me know if you give this a whirl and how it turns out.
Have a lovely weekend xxx
 

3 comments:

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

We call it coffeecake, because it is served with coffee :) It's an old term when people would visit people for "coffee and desserts" -- so nope ... no coffee in it :) And a lot of our recipes has you mix the 'dry' ingredients separate, then add it to the moist ingredients slowly to blend it all together (it's how I make my chocolate chip cookies) :) This sounds delicious ... PINNING :)

Jody said...

Oh Lisa, I saw you post this picture and was going to message you to inquire about the recipe. Looks and sounds delicious! I love the story about the b&b. Maybe one day we can make this together in one if our kitchens and enjoy it warm over a long chat and cup of coffee! Just as the name suggests. :) I will let you know how this recipe turn

Jody said...

*turns out. :) I have apples from the Farmers Market to put to good use!