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My Golden Pear: CHOCOLATE AND APPLE CAKE

Thursday 24 January 2013

CHOCOLATE AND APPLE CAKE

For my next January challenge I decided to enter Random Recipes over at Belleau Kitchen. Dom, who is the guy behind Belleau Kitchen, asked if we could choose a recipe from someone else's kitchen for this challenge. My initial thought was to ask my Mum but as most of our cook books are the same I knew I was unlikely to get something new. My second thought was to ask my friend Sam. I have known Sam for a few years and we meet up once or twice a month for coffee and a catch up. We have many similar interests but one thing we don't share is my love for food and cooking. Sam eats to live, I live to eat. For this reason I have never told her that I have a food blog, conscious of not wanting to be a food bore and to witness the slight glazing over of eyes that I see from my husband when I start to talk about food. I sent her an email along the lines of "Hi Sam, would you mind choosing a recipe from one of your books and sending it over to me. It can be anything you want. Tks." Now Sam has been in my kitchen and knows I have 100's of books so I kind of anticipated her answer. The replay back was "What do you mean? Why are you asking me when you have so many recipe books?” I knew this was going to be hard to explain but I went with it anyway. I replied back, "I know it sounds weird but I am cooking something random for a guy called Dom.” The reply back was quick, "Who is Dom?” I was now having fun and decided to go with the flow. "Well he is a guy on the Internet.” Another quick reply, "You're talking to a guy on the Internet and cooking for him? What's going on?”  "Don't worry about it," I said. "Nothing untoward is going on. Just send me a recipe and I'll tell you all about it next time I see you.”  Not long after I received an email back with a recipe from The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook for a Chocolate Apple Cake. She closed the email with "Can we meet for coffee this week?”

  I feel slightly mean for keeping her in suspense and I know she won't fully understand why I'm cooking something completely random for a guy I've never met but that's blogging for you.

 I made the cake a couple of days ago and loved it. I still had a couple of apples from our apple tree lurking in the back of my fridge and so made my own apple puree. There is something oddly satisfying about using home grown produce. I even had Fairtrade cocoa and Fairtrade chocolate so felt I was doing the recipe justice. The raw cake mixture was thick and fudgy and quite different to any other chocolate cake mixtures I've made before. Once cooked, the cake was beautifully moist and had the slightest hint of apple to taste. I was running out of time to finish it off, so wrapped it up in tinfoil and only took it out to ice today (2 days later). It was still moist and fudgy. I topped it off with the chocolate topping which I have to say set really quickly and had a nice crispness to it. If anything the topping slightly overpowered the taste of apple in the cake but it is still good. This is not a showstopper of a cake but more a family favourite and so much better for having some fresh apple in it. 

Now I really must get back to Sam about that coffee date.
 
 
 
 

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Total time: 1 hr 5 minutes
 
Yield: 16 squares
 
 
Ingredients
  • 120 ml vegetable oil
  • 225g Fairtrade sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 175 g plain flour
  • 40g Fairtrade cocoa
  • 1.5 tsp Fairtrade ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 225g apple puree (from 2 med apples and 125 ml apple juice or water)
  • 75g Fairtrade plain chocolate
  • 25g butter, softened
 
Cooking Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C (350 deg F). Grease and flour a 20 cm square baking tin.
  2. Peel, core and chop the apple up into small chunks.
  3. Place the apple juice and apple in a saucepan and simmer gently until the apple breaks up easily.
  4. Puree the apples, measure out 225g and set aside to cool.
  5. Beat the oil, sugar and egg in a large bowl until pale in colour and fluffy and set aside.
  6. Sift the flour with the cocoa powder, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda in another bowl.
  7. Stir alternate spoonfuls of the flour mixture and the apple puree into the egg mixture.
  8. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and place in the oven.
  9. Bake for 35 mintutes, or until a fine skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
  10. Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
  11. Melt the chocolate for the icing in a bowl set above hot water in a saucepan over a low heat. Remove it from the heat and stir in the butter making sure there are no lumps left.
  12. Spread over the top of the cake to decorate.
 
 
 
Written by : Angela Darroch

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17 Comments:

At 24 January 2013 at 10:26 , Blogger Lauren Roffey said...

Love the fresh apple in them and they look so chic :)

 
At 24 January 2013 at 10:36 , Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks Lauren - I loved the texture that the apples gave to the cake.

 
At 24 January 2013 at 10:59 , Blogger Unknown said...

I love this story so much... and i'm more than happy to be your secret man on the internet... especially if I can have a slice of this stunning cake... isn't it amazing and I love all the wonderful ingredients, including all that apple... I adore apple and chocolate, great combo. Thanks so much for taking part this month, it's lovely to have you on board x

 
At 24 January 2013 at 13:18 , Anonymous Camilla @FabFood4All said...

The apples add such a lovely moistness to your cake I just want to grab a slice.You say it's no showstopper, I disagree it looks beautiful:-) My son has to make a cake and take it into school for his science class next week so I'm going to get him to make this!

 
At 24 January 2013 at 13:30 , Blogger Unknown said...

Ha ha. I really enjoyed this challenge and found a great new cake in the process. Look forward to the next one.

 
At 24 January 2013 at 13:32 , Blogger Unknown said...

What a lovely comment Camilla. I hope your son enjoys it.

 
At 24 January 2013 at 14:32 , Anonymous Camilla @FabFood4All said...

We'll all enjoy it as he only has to take in a slice:-)

 
At 24 January 2013 at 19:26 , Anonymous Mich Piece of Cake said...

What a beautifully moist cake. I love to make cakes with fruits and this sounds perfect.

 
At 25 January 2013 at 04:28 , Blogger Mumsfilibaba said...

Interesting recipe with apple puree. Very nice picture. Makes me run to kitchen now ;).

 
At 25 January 2013 at 21:32 , Blogger Angie's Recipes said...

I too love using fresh fruits in baked goods. The cake looks beautiful.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 13:28 , Blogger Unknown said...

I agree - it makes you feel ever so slightly less guilty about eating cake :-)

 
At 27 January 2013 at 13:55 , Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and for the lovely comment.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 13:56 , Blogger Unknown said...

The apple was a nice surprise - I've never thought to use it in a chocolate cake before.

 
At 31 January 2013 at 00:22 , Blogger underthebluegumtree said...

This cake looks and sounds gorgeous. I am definitely bookmarking it to try. Stunning pic too.

 
At 31 January 2013 at 10:32 , Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks. It lasted well, staying moist much longer than most cakes I've made.

 
At 3 February 2013 at 12:31 , Blogger Ruth Ellis said...

This looks gorgeous - I've made chocolate and pear cake before but never chocolate and apple - it sounds intriguing (in a good way!)

 
At 3 February 2013 at 14:54 , Blogger Unknown said...

I love the sound of using pear purée - I might just try that. Thanks

 

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