APPLE SAUCE

I have been baking, just not blogging it - too many other things on, like a deadline for my latest novel.

One of my favourite chocolate cake recipes calls for apple sauce. I intend to make the cake on Thursday for my birthday so today I used some turning apples to make the sauce, rather than buy it. I only need half a cup so there's little point buying a jar to chuck it anon.

This makes a sweet sauce as the apples are sweet to start with.

Ingredients

• 2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped small (I used golden delicious)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 60ml water (enough to cover the bottom of the pot)

Method

• Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover with lid.
• Simmer apples for about 8 minutes or until soft  The smaller the pieces, the faster they soften. Stir at halfway mark to avoid sticking.
• Remove from heat and mash or whizz in a blender for a puréed sauce.

Blended Apple Cake

'Cookers Not Eaters' sign is to warn the kids :)

My friend John brought cooking apples from his sister's house in Clare; I immediately wanted an apple cake. I was planning one with apple pieces but then saw this recipe for a blended one at All Recipes and changed my mind.

I added cinnamon and put in spelt flour because I love its dense texture. This resulted in a fairly flat cake (despite my adding baking powder). But it made a very sweet and tasty cake, perfect for the time of year. Really delicious warm!

117 calories per slice (I cut mine into nine pieces)

Blended Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS:

50g margarine
50g caster sugar
2 eggs
60g self-raising flour
50g wholemeal spelt flour
140g cooking apples (2 medium apples)
2 tablespoons water
1tsp baking powder
1tsp ground cinnamon

METHOD:

Grease a square 8" tin. Line the bottom.

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4.

Core and peel the apples, chop finely.

Cream the marg and sugar.

Add both eggs to the mixture.
Fold half the sieved flour, cinnamon and baking powder into the mixture.
Put the apples and water in a blender and blend for a few minutes.
Add the apple mixture to the cake mixture, and fold in the remaining flour.

Pour into the greased tin.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.

Leave to cool for 30 minutes.

VEGAN APPLE CRUMBLE

My father-in-law gave us some apples from his Dublin garden. So far I've made two apple and cinnamon cakes and today I made a small apple crumble. Mr Vegan loves crumble so it's really for him. But I had a little sample and it's a sweet and spicy crumble with a thick topping. Our dish is an 8.25" pie dish - smaller than the usual size.

Topping

75g spelt flour
50g vegan marg
25g brown sugar
30 g porridge oats

Filling

3 apples, chopped
¼ tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
juice and zest of an orange
30g brown sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Stir the filling ingredients over a low heat until the sugar melts and the fruit starts to soften
• Pour the mix into a pie dish and let it cool while you make the topping
• Rub the marg into the flour
• Add the sugar and oats and mix through with your fingers
• Pour the topping onto the fruit and pat down with your hands
• Bake for 30 minutes
• Serve hot or cold, with soya cream or custard

Vegan Apple and Cinnamon Cake

I've been searching for the perfect Apple and Cinnamon Cake recipe to satisfy a craving for a cake my Ma used to make. She remembers the cake but not the recipe. I've tried a few and this one comes close, I think. Though it still doesn't have the dark and bready quality that I'm longing for. I've adapted it from a recipe I found in the Kilkenny Cookbook. It is a 'work' cake and I am a lazy, impatient baker, so this is one for when I have the inclination to be more fiddly - and the time.

Excuse the blurry photo; I don't know why but lots of the photos we take lately seem to be blurred. Getting old?! It's just to give an idea of what it might look like.

Here goes anyway:

Juice of one large orange
75 grs raisins
250 gr wholemeal self-raising flour
125 gr vegan marg
125 gr light brown sugar
2 tsps ground cinnamon
2 large eating apples
2 tsps NoEgg mixed with 4tblsps water (or 2 beaten eggs for non vegans)

Preheat the oven to 180˚C
Line an 8" round cake tin with baking paper
Soak the raisins in the orange juice
Sift the flour and rub in the marg, until it's like breadcrumbs
Mix in the cinnamon and sugar
Peel the apples, cut into small chunks and mix in
Add the soaked fruit and NoEgg mixture, and mix thoroughly
Spoon the mixture into the tin and flatten the top
Bake for 30 to 35 mins and test with a skewer
Cool in the tin on a wire rack for ten minutes, then take it out and carefully peel off the paper.

Delicious hot or cold, with soy cream, ice-cream or custard. Or on its own with a cuppa!