Apple Cake

Ingredients:

Firm Apples, Golden Delicious/ Granny Smith/ Fuji - 3 large or 4 medium 

Walnuts, chopped - 1 cup 

Raisins -  1 cup 

Flour - 3 cups

Sugar - 1 1/2 cups 

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp 

Vanilla Extract  - 1 tsp

Eggs, large - 3 

Salt - 1 tsp 

Cinnamon, ground - 1 tsp 

Oil, neutral tasting - 1 1/4 cup

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, mix well and set aside. 3. In a large bowl combing the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla essence. Using a handheld mixer, blend till the mixture is glossy. 

4. Incorporate the flour mixture to the wet mix in 3-4 installments. The cake batter will be very thick and sticky. 

5. Add chopped apples, walnuts, and raisins to the cake batter and mix to combine. 

6. Empty the mixture into a greased, fluted cake pan and bake for 50 minutes. 

Additional baking may be required. The cake is ready when it turns golden brown and a wooden skewer dipped in it comes out clean.

Classic Bundt Cake

Cleaning out the house had me gone completely mental so I was thrilled at the prospect of a night out with the girls... giggling, overeating, talking about things that mattered and other things that really didn't.

In fact, I was so delighted that I decided to bake a cake for us to have for dessert.

We would all go to Big Star and eat, after which I would invite them home for some bundt cake with sliced strawberries and chocolate sauce. I had imagined much gushing and praise. Not over the cake so much, but more over the herculean task of cleaning out six years of ... well... crap.
A woman would get it. A woman would appreciate me and the sheer perseverance it took... over weeks....
Okay, so I really wanted to be appreciated... but I made the cake out of love... and excitement.... and anticipation.


You can see something coming, can't you?
Well, I didn't!

I pull the cake out of the oven at around 2pm and log into my email to announce dessert - when I realize our girl's night out now includes the most undesirable element of all - BOYS! THREE WHOLE BOYS!
So dismayed!

I slice the cake into smaller bits, because now we have more mouths to feed.
That too boy mouths! The hungriest kind.

My woebegoneness aside, this cake really is delicious. It is almost exactly the same as featured in The Family Baking Book, except I've decreased the amount of sugar and butter.

Date Cake

I like being by myself.

It could be a habit I developed early, with being an only child to working parents. 
I always came home to animals. Cats mostly.

Truth be told, I feel most closest to being my self, when I'm at home with no one but my cat for company. That doesn't mean I'm averse to company. Quite the contrary really, both me and the cat love guests. We love the laughter that comes with them, and the smells. We love breaking bread with them and listening to their tales. Oh, we love guests! But we also love just being by ourselves.

When the husband goes away on work, which happens ever week, the cat and I have a routine.
It usually starts with picking up after the excitement of the weekend. The clutter of all the activities we undertook and abandoned.
Afterward, the cat naps and I watch an episode of Murder, She Wrote.

This past month however, the husband was around a lot. The cat got used to having him around. I got used to having him around.

So when Susheel left for the week on Monday morning, Simba and I looked at each other... unsettled.
We had our territory back to us. We could reclaim our silence.
We tried to get back into routine and we failed.
Simba slept on the ironing board while I sat on the couch with freshly washed, unfolded laundry piled in a basket next to me.

Simba's ears twitched. I was decidedly out-of-sorts. So I did the one thing I've learned to do in an emotional crisis... bake.

The clanging of pots woke Simba and he came to investigate.  For someone who doesn't care for cake, he loves to be around when I bake.

I shifted bottles in the kitchen cupboards and found nine dates in their little #6 plastic box.

"Date Cake"... It was decided.

I considered what would pair well with dates and decided on walnuts. Also, cardamom! 

Dry Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp each of baking powder and baking soda, the powdered contents of 6 cardamom pods. Sift, mix and set aside.

Wet ingredients: 1 egg, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of apple sauce (because it had been sitting on the pantry shelf since before the dates), 1/2 cup of oil.

Blend till well combined: 

Add flour in installments and mix well. Once well combined, add a cup full of chopped dates and walnuts.

Spoon into prepared muffin pan... or new mini bundt cake pan you were dying to debut!
I didn't ration them out right, but you can be more prudent.

Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit over for approximately 25 mins.

The house is filled with lovely smells and warmth... Simba's decided to sleep on the couch again and I'm going to make me some tea to go with these cakes. Then, my napping cat and I can help J B Fletcher solve her next case.

We've saved some for you Susheel.
We're happy, but we still miss you.