Old-Fashioned Apple Tea Cake

Last Thursday night, Mr B lined up a lunch date with his Grandfather for Friday and seeing as I was going to be at work that day and unable to attend, I did the next best thing - I baked them a cake!

Now on Friday night when I asked Mr B how it was, he broke out some serious descriptive words like 'cakey' and 'appley'...oh and let's not forget 'great,' meanwhile I'm sitting there saying...'but was it moist? dense? light? fluffy? damn it I need to know!' My final understanding, after quite some time, was that it is a beautiful light butter cake, topped with a appley goodness....I'm good with that.

Old-Fashioned Apple Tea Cake

You will need:
180g butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup milk
2-3 apple
2 tbspns boiling water
1 tspn gelatine
2 tbspns apricot jam (or orange marmalade works just as well)
Cinnamon

Grease and line a 20cm deep cake tin or springform pan. Pre-heat oven to 180C

Beat the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer until pale and creamy.

Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flours and milk and beat until just combined. Pour the mixture into your prepared cake tin.

Peel, quarter and core the apples. Cut into thin slices. Arrange the slices on the top of your cake. Sprinkle with cinnamon if you want.

Bake for roughly an hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Stand for 5-10 mins before removing from pan.

While cake is still warm, combine the water and gelatine in a jug. Stir well until gelatine is dissolved. Stir in the jam. Brush over the top of the cake.

Allow to cool completely before serving.

This cake makes a lovely afternoon tea on it's own, or if you're feeling a little bit fancy, it would be heavenly with a dollop of whipped cream too.

On Friday night, Mr B and I went out for a romantic Italian dinner for two! We went to a little old local restaurant called Don Camillo's and the food (and the company) was perfect. Plus it gave me a chance to wear my new dress (partly purchased with a voucher Mr B gave me for Christmas!)

On Sunday the sun was shining and for a change the wind wasn't blowing so Mr B and I took the opportunity to jump on our bikes and go for a ride. We headed down the highway to Huonville where we hired a pedal boat and went for a paddle up the Huon River. It was a beautiful day for it and cruising up the river was quite peaceful and relaxing.

On the way home we rode up through Cradoc, Cygnet and Margate, and on the way we passed a big strawberry farm, it seemed like all we could smell for miles was fresh strawberry jam! A quick rest (read thickshake) stop later and we were home.

Another hectic, but lovely weekend in the Mr and Mrs B household!

Mrs B xox