Mum's Apple Cake - Scrummy Yummy!

Popped over to Mum's for tea this evening and arrived just as this heavenly creation was emerging from the oven. I wish you could smell this - warm appley/cinnamon - just like a Mum's kitchen should be :)So we had to eat all our tea before Mum would let us tuck in - it was still warm so very crumbly but with a dollop of creme fraiche - mmmmmmm :) Are you drooling yet? Well, here's the recipe - I snaffooed it out from under her nose! LOL

225g softened butter

400g Bramley apples, cleaned & died to about 1cm (0.5inch)

2 tablespoons raisins

1 lemon - zest and juiced

225g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

225g self raising flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

25g ground almonds (optional)

1 tablespoon demerara crystal

Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade/gas mark 4. Line the base of a 23cm (9inch) cake tin and lightly grease the sides.

Put diced apples, raisins and lemon juice in a bowl.

Cream together caster sugar, butter and lemon zest until pale & fluffy, add the eggs gradually then fold in the flour, baking power and cinnamon (and almonds if you are including them). Drain excess lemon juice from the apples and raisins and add to the cake mixture.

Tip the whole lot into the cake tin and shake gently to level, sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top.

Bake for 1 hour, cover the top with tinfoil if it starts to brown too much. Leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes then turn out onto a serving plate.

Enjoy :)

Day2Day - wk 7 - Just an Ifit week

What's an Ifit I hear you ask? If it got in front of my lens, it had it's photo taken! Very similar to my ifit meals - if it's in the fridge, throw it in the pan (also known as a sort of stir fry). Also a pretty horrid week all round and to top it off, I have failed to do a photo today so only 4 this week :(

Day 1 - Monday I tried to cook a cake to send to Lazygiraffe over on Etsy. We've been partnered up in a Cake Swap. This is the devastation of my kitchen after cooking AND it wasn't very nice either!

Day 2 - Tuesday and all the neighbourhood starlings decided my roof was the best for a party! I love watching them when they all fly up together but boy, do they make a noise meantime!
Day 3 - Wednesday and the sun came out for a while. This beauty (Red Admiral) was so busy stuffing his face, he didn't take any notice of me or my camera! I have cropped this one quite heavily so you can see his eye and his tongue (proboscis) quite clearly (only if you want to, of course!).

and Day 4, Thursday. Just yesterday morning, I heard a news report that the small tortoiseshell butterfly numbers have dropped 80% since the 1990's. I hadn't seen one all summer then just one day after hearing the report, there were two of them on my buddleia. This poor fellow has a very tatty wing so I'm guessing he's either been attacked by a bird (and got away) or he's an old boy.

Peanut Butter Scrumptiousness :)

There's a rather nice lady on Etsy called Marmalady who makes the scrummiest, moistest, most delicious flapjacks I've ever tasted. Many of the girls in the UK Street Team are, to put it politely, addicted to them and keep Marmalady busy sending out food parcels.

Well, she only went on holiday for two whole weeks - the withdrawal symptoms got so bad, I had to make my own. I dug out an old baking recipe book but before I got to the flapjack recipe, I found our old favourite - Peanut Butter Cookies. During the usual mayhem chat that is the UK thread, someone asked about them so here is the recipe I use for those who want to give them a try.

5 oz (140g) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 oz (115g) butter (at room temp)

5 3/4 oz light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

9 1/2 oz crunchy peanut butter

Oven temp. 350F/180C/gas4 - makes 24 large cookies

The original recipe says to cream the butter and sugar, then add the peanut butter, egg, vanilla essence, mix then add dry ingredients. Mix well then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to firm up. Grease up two trays and use a teaspoon to gather a small blob of mixture, roll into a ball between your palms, plop on tray then flatten slightly with a fork. Put in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool on tray for 2 or 3 minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.

I, on the otherhand, used self raising flour, no bicarb and a butter substitute, threw everything in together and left it to chill for an hour! Then I used baking parchment on 4 trays, rolled out small balls indeed and flattened with a fork as instructed.

Unfortunately, I have a narrow cooker so in putting 12 on a narrow baking sheet, I didn't leave them much room to spread even though I had made the balls smaller than last time (due to a scribbled note in my book!) so I ended up with nearly 40 smaller cookies.