We had an unusual visitor at 7.15am on Wednesday. A farmer with a truck full of apples and citrus saw my husband leaving for work and decided to stop ‘in case we needed any fruit’.
Well yes, we always need fruit but I had a feeling that he didn’t mean three apples here, 2 oranges there.
‘It’s just a box’ said my husband excitedly adding in words such as ‘organic’, ‘pesticide-free’, ‘never frozen’ and ‘picked yesterday’. As I spread Vegemite onto toast I considered that a box would probably translate to quite a few apples but I also hadn’t finished my mug of tea so I decided to let him deal with the farmer.
Well, I can now say from experience that a box of apples = LOTS of apples. ‘How are we meant to eat all this?’ I asked as my husband dropped the box onto the kitchen table.
‘We’ll get through it. The kids love apples’, he said over his shoulder as he left for work.
This is true, the kids do love apples (they’re the only fruit Ned will eat at the moment) but there are only three of them. Not 30. So after sending each child off into the world for the last couple of days with an apple for recess and another for lunch; after offers of apple on porridge for breakfast; of pork and apple sauce for dinner; of stewed apple for dessert... we still have LOTS of apples.
Luckily, there is a chapter devoted to apples in Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion. It’s a short chapter, unfortunately, but there is a tasty looking apple cake I plan to bake this weekend. And as it is a weekend, I thought it would be fun to share the recipe in case anyone else has a kitchen full of apples... if you don’t, I really do have more than enough to share.
Quick Apple Cake
2 cups peeled & chopped apples
2 tbsp Kellybrook Winery apple brandy, brandy or rum
140g unsalted butter
160g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
3 eggs
120g castor sugar
Method
Soak fruit in chosen spirit for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Butter a 24cm ring tin or 22cm round cake tin.
Melt butter & allow to cool
Sift flour & baking powder
Beat eggs & sugar until thick and fluffy and fold in flour mixture gently.
Drizzle in melted butter, then fold it in
Fold in apple & any juice
Spoon into prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes until cake is golden brown & tests clean
Serve warm or cold with cream
Recipe taken from The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander, Viking, 1996
2 comments:
Have you thought of having an apple bobbing party...
If only the apples arrived the week before, we could have had an apple bobbing comp for Ned's 5th birthday party! Good idea though as the cake turned out well but only used up 4 apples...
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