Dorset Apple Cake

Don't let the fact that I left this cake a little too long in the oven put you off. It was sweet, juicy and wholesome to the point that a second slice left you feeling as if you'd eaten a bowl of hot stew. I've never eaten a cake that filled me up like that before.

It was also a little bit of a struggle to get L to stand for a photo:

'I'm going to look stupid.'

'No, you won't, you're not going to be in the photo.'

'Then why do you want me to hold the cake?'

'I want the photo toinclude oven gloves swaddling the cake fresh from the oven.'

'You're not going to put my face up on the internet are you? You know I hate that. Especially facebook, please don't put me up on facebook.'

And so ensued another rant about the evils of facebook and how L will never, ever, ever join it. Ever.

Okay, okay, I get it.
But I am still fundamentally pro-facebook. I have reconnected with so many friends both from my Oxford childhood and my Hereford teenage/young adult years. It has been great fun to see where we have all ended up and if it was where we all thought we would be.

However, I can see why some people are against it. I have seen facebook bullying and some offensive photos on the website, but at least you can block people who upset you. Perhaps it will take a bad experience to change my opinion.

Back to the hot apple cake in hand, L's hands that is. After he had finally posed for me, we made the short journey to my parent's house for M to be babysat that evening while we were at work. The cake came with us and we enjoyed it with tea fresh from the pot.

Dorset Apple Cake (serves 10)

Ingredients
120ml rapeseed oil (or other flavourless oil)
100g caster sugar
125g soft brown sugar
275g wholemeal self raising flour
3 medium eggs
zest one orange
3 eating apples; peeled, cored and roughly chopped into 1cm pieces
175g sultanas
2 tsp mixed spice

Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/170C and line a loaf tin with greasproof paper.
Using a freestanding mixerm whisk together the oil, sugars, eggs and orange zest until light and foamy.
Sift together the flour and spices into a medium sized bowl and briefly combine with the apple pieces and sultanas.
Add the dry mixture to the wet one and beat until well mixed.
Spoon the cake batter into the lined cake tin and level the top with the back of a spoon.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes until golden brown and a metal skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for five minutes before turning out to eat or cool further.