have a break, have a cake

As luck were to have it, I found myself nursing a horrid cold, which effectively rendered my right ear dysfunctionally non-functional and the eyes utterly painful and watery. As I was baking this, I asked the mister how I was going to trust my nose when it was currently not serving me well. [You see, experience has taught me to trust my nose, rather than the cranky oven timer.] I shouldn’t have baked, I thought. I should’ve just resisted the urge of getting myself out of the comfy bed. But all was too late, as I heard myself fretting, half-dead slumped over the couch, while the batter was alive and kicking in the warmth of the oven.

Anyone should know by now that I only turn to fruit bakes in an attempt to rescue them from going bad, as with the case of these green apples. I initially had those three little green pears hiding away behind their more popular counterparts in mind, but alas, even after several counts of resuscitation, they were beyond redemption, and had to go to the bin. Time of death: who knows, exactly.

But the sight of this cake made everything much better. Try not to be fooled by the bad photo-taking on my part. The occluded vision probably had a hand in that. I simply adored how the cake rose beautifully and had cracks in all the right places. The texture was moist and fluffy, and the ingredients are pretty much versatile (try replacing apples with pears, or cinnamon with cardamom or ginger). But I must warn you though, if you’re not a fan of spice cakes, this may not be up to your palatable delights, since it is not sweet, but instead carried the aroma of cinnamon waffling with every bite. With cinnamon-sugar topping plus cinnamon in the cake itself, how can it not?

Apple-Cinnamon Cake/Bread

1 2/3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chopped unpeeled apples (1-2)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk (for cake: 1/2 cup milk)
2 eggs

Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1. Preheat oven to 180C; grease bottom of loaf pan.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients, except topping, in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients. Mix in the dry ingredients.
4. Pour into loaf pan. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle on top. You may wish to place sliced apples on top of the batter.
5. Bake 55-65 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean cool 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.