Apple cake

I love 'collecting' cook books, of course I cook from them as well. However, I've stopped myself from buying them for a while, only because I'm running out of book shelve space! I really need to do some rearrangement before I can buy anymore. But I can tell you, restraining myself from buying anymore kitchen appliances/gadgets and cookbooks is VERY hard, especially during this sale period!!!! arrrrggghhhhh.... wish I have a bigger house, bigger kitchen, bigger storage space!

I think I started doing some cooking and baking around 15 years ago, and therefore my cookbook collection started back then, but I definitely wasn't as keen in cooking as I am now. So the 40 odd cookbooks were probably bought in the last few years... =P

The other day as I was looking through my collection to see what dessert I should make for home fellowship, I saw this tiny little book called 'Glorious Cakes & Gateaux'... And at the front, the price sticker is still there... '$3.50'... wow... do you think that we can still get a cookbook for $3.50??

I started flicking through the book, I really haven't touched this book for a while, I remember my favourite recipe from this book is the Black Forest Cake!!! =) This time for HF, I wanted to make something that you eat warm, because of this cold weather, don't think a mousse cake or any cold dessert is such a good idea!

Apple cake!!! I love apple in my dessert, I love the sour taste together with the cinnamon and using brown sugar to add the sweetness to the plate. And the recipe seems very easy, so that's definitely my pick!

Ingredients:

250g self raising flour

2tsp baking power

1 tsp ground cinnamon

130g caster sugar

50g butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

150ml milk

Topping:

2 apples, peeled, cored, sliced thinly

1tbsp butter, melted

4 tbsp raw sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

2. Sift the flour, baking power and cinnamon together into a bowl. Add sugar. Whisk the butter, eggs and milk together. Stir into the flour mixture.

3. Pour the mixture into the tin, smooth the surface, then make a shallow hollow around the edge. Arrange the apple around the edge. Brush with butter and scatter with raw sugar and cinnamon

4. Bake for 45-50min. Serve warm.

Obviously the cake wasn't served immediately because it was baked the night before. Since I couldn't make it to HF last night, so my hubby was the representative and took the cake along with him. But surprise surprise.... he didn't reheat the cake in the microwave, so the cake was served cold! =( Afterwards, my hubby told me that the HF bros and sis requested if next time I couldn't come to HF, I should leave a note on top of the cake and give instruction of how to eat it... haha... I was lucky enough to have one small piece of cake left over, and I of course reheated it in the microwave!!!

Overall I found this cake is a bit too dry, I might have over-cooked it a bit in the oven! =P And I think it can go a bit sweeter, most of the flavour came from the topping, and the cake itself tasted a bit bland. Maybe next time I'll modify the recipe a bit and give it another go!