“And there never was an apple, in Adam’s opinion, that wasn’t worth the trouble you got into for eating it.”
Neil Gaiman
What’s l♥v got to do with this cake? Everything!! Loves got everything to do with this if you love fruity goodness. This is a light fruity cake, great for a snack, elegant for evening tea, different in so many ways. The bottom layer is basically the fresh fruit which gets cooked in a cakey batter, and the topping is a nice burst of dried fruit. Feel free to use what suits you, what you love!!
The blogiverse is exciting and BIG! It’s fun to find new blogs, some exciting and full of content you are absolutely SO MAKING as soon as possible. One lucky find the other day was off TasteSpotting. I saw this gorgeous picture, and followed it in trance to a beautiful blog called ‘The Mansurovs‘. Gosh, it neatly sliced a couple of hours off my day. Stunning photography, brilliant step-by-step pictures, wonderful recipes!!
The Apple Pie with Dried Fruit is a recipe that will call your name, if, like me, you love fruit in bakes. I made a few minor changes, and am sure the cake will offer added luxury if you stick to ‘all purpose flour and all butter’. I made a few teeny healthy changes in line with my Ten in 10 resolutions, but the cake was still fab. Lola‘s cake looks firmer, and I think that her apples were of a crisper texture. I basically used apples that the vendor had, (read ‘not much choice’), and even though I wasn’t a 100% happy with their ‘crunch’ factor, I went ahead … the result was still delicious!!
I went back to The Mansurovs beautiful blog to pick up the link to the post, and found a new post out already calling my name. Blogaddicted… yes.. I am!! Need I add … I’m l♥ving it??
4 oz of dried fruit of your choice. (I used raisins, dried apricots, crystallised ginger and dried cranberries)
1 cup of apple juice (as suggested by Lola) 3/4 cup of all purpose flour 1/4 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 4 medium apples 8 strawberries (optional) 3 eggs pinch of salt 1/2 cup light brown sugar 6 Tbsp unsalted butter melted 2 Tbsp oil Pinch of cinnamon 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts divided in half Cooking spray or little butter to grease the spring form pan
Method
Pre-heat oven at 170 C.
In a small bowl mix the dried fruit with apple juice and half a vanilla bean, seeds scraped and added. Close the lid of the bowl (or simply cover it with microwave safe plate) and microwave it for 2 minutes. Once ready, set aside until further use.
Sift the flour together with the baking powder and set aside until needed.
Whisk together eggs, pinch of salt and light brown sugar, until the mixture is lighter.
Add the melted butter, cinnamon and whisk until everything is mixed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. With a spatula gently stir everything together, just until incorporated.
Once well-incorporated, mix in half of the chopped walnuts along with the cut fruits. Grease the sides and the bottom of the 9″ spring roll pan using baking spray or butter.(I lined the tin)
Place the ready mixture in the pan. Drain the juice, if any, from under the dried fruit and place them randomly on top of the pie. I addede som e chopped strawberries too. Sprinkle remaining walnuts on top of the pie and place the pan on the middle rack of the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the readiness of the pie. Once time is up, take the spring pan out of the oven, let it cool for 10-15 minutes before un-molding the pie. Cool it further on the wire rack.
You can serve it warm or cold. Voila!
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
I’d like to make a mention here of some super work an amazing 16 year old blogger, Lauren @ Celiac Teen, has singlehandedly done for Haiti. She took it upon herself to make a difference and came up with an idea for a Haiti e-book to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
All proceeds will do to the Canadian Red Cross. And here’s the really important part: the Canadian Government will match all donations received by February 12th, that are marked for Haiti Relief.
Enjoy this book. It has been an absolute labour of love. Best of all, it is for a good cause.
Notes: Being an ebook, you purchase the PDF file, then can print off as many copies as you wish!
To quoteLauren … ‘There are 87 recipes contributed by 71 fantastic people. They are a collection of home recipes. People from all over the world have provided recipes that bring them comfort. I have loved looking through them, and can’t wait to cook them! I hope you do too. In terms of price, the ebook will cost as much as you want it to cost, with a bare minimum of $10. It is a donation, so that price is adjustable and you can donate as much as you wish! Whether you purchase it for $10 or $510, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. All together, we can make a difference. We can pool our donations and extend a hand to Haiti’
