French Apple Cake

This year I am more than usual drawn to challenges, especially such including lists. It is probably the structure and feeling of accomplishment lists provide, together with the boost of dopamine one gets from checking the items off the list.

The first of these challenges is Make Nine, of which I have already made two items (the second is to be revealed very soon, I hope). Then, I recently came upon Clean Lady's system for cleaning your house and maintaining it decluttered and clean - a problem that has always pursued me and bothered me. I watched a number of videos, read some of the posts on her blog and have decided to give it a go in February, following her Homekeeping Calendar - a neat sheet of lists for every day of the month with a number of tasks to accomplish for the day. Seems interesting and doable and I am really curious if it'll be better than my haphazard approach to cleaning and tidying. 

And the third challenge I have decided to uptake - International cooking. Recently FB offered me 10 Classic French Recipes Easy Enough to Make Anytime and I got hooked. First I planned to make all of the listed recipes, but then it occurred to me, that I would like to try other cuisines too, so I've decided to make 2022 the Year of International Cuisines. Each month I'll try at least five recipes from some region of the world. And because it was these French recipes, that gave me the inspiration, January is the month of France. So far I made the Omelette (not much different from what I usually do, but there were a few useful tips, like keeping it moister and the dragging to create waves); the Pommes Persillade - these took some time to prepare, but were undoubtedly worth it and a hit at home. The Omelette and the Persillades are definitely worth becoming a staple in our kitchen.

The third recipe is the French Apple Cake. It is very moist and buttery and though kind of similar in the form of products and method of preparation to a cake I often make at home - the Hooligan cake, the different proportion of the products used and most of all the amount of butter, make it taste distinctly unlike the Hooligan.

So, here are the products and methods I used to make my cake:

Products:

• 3 average apples Golden delicious variety
• 100 g butter (unsalted, as is usually sold here)
  
• 1 cup flour
• 150 g brown sugar
• 5 g baking powder
• 2 eggs size L
• 2 vanillas, a pinch of salt
• 60 ml golden rum
  

I peeled and diced the apples, beat the eggs with the sugar, added the butter and the rum and then folded in the flour with the spices and in the end the apples. The resulting batter was very thick and not at all runny as most cake batter is. I baked the cake at 180C in a preheated oven, for about 35 min.

After the cake cooled, I served it with coffee for son and myself and tee for husband. And then I remembered to sprinkle powdered sugar on top :)

So, impressions: Husband loved it. He is a fan of butter and cakes and the more the butter the better. Son and I, however, were frankly disappointed. I don't like so much butter in my cakes, it overpowers the taste and does not allow the top to get meringue-like and crusty - the feature we all like most about the Hooligan cake. So, no, I'm happy I tried it but in this case I'll stick to my similar but different old recipe.

Movie Night Pajamas III

I am very much a morning person and my most favourite and cherished part of the day is the time for my cup of coffee, a piece of cake and a book or, more often lately, daily Duolingo exercises. From spring to late autumn I drink my coffee on the small balcony, overlooking the green area behind our building, still in my pajamas. 

This year I found a free pajama pattern - the Movie Night Pajamas by Sew a Little Seams, which checks all the boxes for me. The upper part is practically a T-shirt and the bottoms are leggings - just as I like them. I already sewed one pair for Gaby and one for myself and yesterday I finished my second pair. I've been looking for a suitable knit fabric for the pajamas all summer long and in the end I gave up on the idea that I could have it all - a print I like and fabric texture and quality I want, so I decided to make a compromise with the print. The fabric I bought from a new for me fabric shop downtown is very soft and smooth cotton knit with lycra, simply divine to wear and I think I can live with the busy print.

Pattern: Movie Night Pajamas by Sew a Little Seam

Size: 0-2, shortened

Fabric: cotton knit with lycra

Time to make: 2 days

And because I don't want to lose the recipe of the cake I made last night, here it is:

Products:

• 2 average apples, peeled and grated
• 2 eggs
• 200 g sugar
• 120 g milk
• 60 g vegetable oil
• 200 g flour
• 15 baking powder
• 100 g dry fruits and raisins 
• 50 g walnuts
• cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg or other spices
  

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the milk and oil. Sift the flour with the baking powder and gradually add to the wet mixture. Fold in the dry fruits, cut into small pieces, the raisins and nuts and the grated apples. Add the spices, stir and pour into a baking form. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C until a test toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy with coffee or tea!

 

My Latest Apple Cake

I came upon this apple cake recipe somewhat by chance last week and today is the third time I'm baking it - it's SO good (half of it is already eaten!). My initial idea was to make a cake, using the handful of walnuts and raisins I had in the fridge. I mixed a recipe of eggs, milk, oil and flour and added the walnuts and raisins, but the batter seemed a little runny. So, I cored two apples, cut them in the chopper and added them to the batter. The apple cake turned very juicy, aromatic and sweet.

Here are the ingredients - I definitely want to preserve this recipe:
Products:

• 2 eggs
• 180 g sugar
• 120 g milk
• 60 g sunflower oil
• 200 g flour
• 10 g baking powder
• 10 g mixed spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper - I grind these together and make the mix myself)
• 300 g (two average sized) chopped apples
• 50 g walnuts 
• 50 g raisins

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the oil and the milk. Mix the flour with the baking powder and the spices and add to the wet ingredients. Stir in the walnuts, raisins and apples. Pour the batter into a well greased baking form and put in a preheated oven at 180C. Bake until the toothpick test indicates it's ready. Serve with tea, coffee or milk and enjoy :)

Hooligan Pear Cake

The inspiration for this amazingly juicy and tasty cake came from this publication in one of my favourite Bulgarian cooking blogs. Yesterday I made it with apples and today - with pears and I can recommend both - turns out pears too go well with cinnamon and vanilla.

Ingredients: 

• 3 pears / apples
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 50 g butter
• 5 g baking powder
• cinnamon, vanilla

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the butter (melted) and the flour with the baking powder. Pour the batter in a greased baking dish (26 cm), spread the cut fruit on top and sprinkle with cinnamon, vanilla and sugar. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C.

Why hooligan - the author called it that because you cut the fruit into irregular forms and just throw the pieces on top without much order or symmetry concerns :)
A picture of yesterday's apple cake before baking.