I have been meaning to have a go at baking this cake ever since it appeared in my friend Ken’s blog a while ago. Finally the right moment arrived. (Do other people have to have the right moment to bake a certain cake or is it just me?) It’s a popular American recipe.
I was in need of a cake that was quick to put together, moist and very tasty. Something that would not need fancy decoration to make it tempting, that would keep well and be perfect with a cup of tea or equally good with a dollop of custard. And no sickly icing to set your teeth on edge.
It turned out to be the perfect cake in all those respects. My father who is 87 has been very poorly with a nasty bout of shingles and very unpleasant complications. He had not felt much like eating and a piece of tasty cake was just what he needed to rejuvenate the taste buds, stimulate the appetite and set him on the right course to build up his strength again. The strength of cake. The glory of calories when you need lots of them.
This cake is a good keeper so that foil wrapped squares of it can be left in his fridge for nibbling on at any time when he feels like it. Just the job.
You can see Ken’s post about it here. I converted the fl oz measurements into grams for future use and the only change I would make when I make it again is to reduce the amount of salt in the ingredients. If you like gingerbread style cakes you will like this one. (There is no ginger in it but the spices are full on.) For the apple sauce I used a jar of apple compote that you find on the shelves in French supermarkets. You could simply used stewed apple instead. I also added some dried fruit for no other reason than I had it to use up.
Ingredients
365g plain flour
365g golden caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp salt ( I would reduce this to 1 tsp or less next time)
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground allspice
120ml vegetable oil
120ml water
360ml unsweetened apple compote
2 eggs
2 tblsp dried mixed fruit
Method
Preheat the oven to 180° C / 160° fan. Grease a 22cm square baking tin and line the base with baking paper.
Sift the flour, spices, bp and salt into a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix together.
Beat the eggs with the oil and water. Add to the flour mixture along with the apple and beat together until just combined. Stir in the dried fruit and mix well.
Pour into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake for about an hour until done.
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. Cut into squares when cold.
Cuts into a minimum of 16 squares, depending on how big you cut the squares.
