My version of a Dutch Apple Cake

I used to be petrified of baking, until I met someone who was fascinating at baking and really inspired me to bake my own cakes and now I manage baking my own bread! The sweet smell of baking on a lovely rainy afternoon is something to die for. My work takes me to different corners of the world; it makes me miss home a lot but also appreciate it even more. Flashback - When we are in India, we have a very lazy weekend, we start our day with lazy breakfast on our small lawn with sun streaking through the Gul Mohor trees, which shield us from being over looked. While we are enjoying our breakfast and my husband is still reading his news paper peacefully I start dreaming cake! and off I go skipping to the kitchen to see what I can rustle up.

    Snapping back to reality, am currently in London living in a tiny apartment with corner called kitchen. This still hasn't however dampened my spirits to cook or bake; I have been merrily cooking and baking, making the most of what I have and also getting a homely feel with all the baking fragrance that keeps lingering over the weekend. I was wondering what to bake and realised I had really nice and firm green apples; such apples are a baker's friend.

Tried looking up for a recipe for a Dutch Apple Cake, when I was reading through it, I felt it was too much work and less fun, so here is a tailor made version for someone who loves to bake a nice cake and not be too messy about it.

It takes about 20 mins prep time and about 30 mins cooking time and less than a second to polish it off :-)

So here goes your shopping list if you do not fancy stocking your groceries:

• 4 Green Apples firm but not rock hard, they bake really nicely.
• 1 teaspoon of grounded cinnamon, I love a lot of cinnamon, if you don't a pinch will do or substitute cinnamon with mixed spices.
• handful of raisins / sultanas
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tbl spoon baking powder
• 75 gms butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tbl spoon milk
• lemon Zest of 1 large lemon, this can also be replace by orange zest if you have oranges
• 1 tbl spoon lemon juice / orange juice (if you choose red apples are sweet, if its the sour green apples skip the lemon juice)

    Easy steps to get the batter going:

1.     Peel and remove the core of the apples and thinly slice them. Try and slice them evenly, so they all cook well.

2.     Take a large sauce pan and turn on medium heat. Stir the apples, cinnamon and sugar in some butter for 5 mins, don't cook them soft, just enough to coat them with cinnamon and sugar nicely and set them aside to cool.

3.     Sift Flour, baking powder, rub in the butter. The butter needs to be cold right from the refrigerator. The lour mixed at this time will look like breadcrumbs which is perfectly OK.

4.     Add the raisins, Lemon Juice and zest, beaten egg and milk fold them lightly.

5.     Add the apples in the pan along with the juice in the pan.

6.     Mix everything well.

7.     Transfer the lovely cake mix to a baking tin. Make sure the baking tray is properly coated with butter or a butter paper, to avoid the cake sticking to the base.

8.     Turn on the over to 200 degrees Celsius for 30 mins.

9.     Check the cake is baked well, use a tooth pick or a sharp knife and stick it in the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean the cake has baked properly. If not try putting it in for 10-15 mins depending on how wet the toothpick or the knife comes out.

10. Let the cake cool for about 10 mins and it should be ready to eat.

11. You can enjoy the cake as it is or add some whipping cream on top to give it an edge.

When baking is stress free, whatever you bake, tastes delicious! Don't worry about how pretty the cake looks as far as it tastes good :-) You know your cake tastes good when you can't stop at just one bite :-)