United Cakedom: apples

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Raisin Cake with Apple Syrup {recipe} *inspired by The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

My life is always torn between books and baking and on occasion they merge.

This is one of those occasions.

The Cruel Prince was released early this year and everyone went mad for it. I love Holly Black, her Curse Worker series being one of my all time favorites, however fairies and the world of the Faerie have never been my first choice in supernatural worlds, genre, or whatever.

The book is clever and deserves all the praise it has received and I will probably read the rest of the series/trilogy but, I will do so in my own time. One thing about the Faerie world that I like best is the food. Note that if you are a human living in Faerie you sprinkle all your food with salt to counter act any spells or enchantments that may have been placed on the food. After that you are free to enjoy the delicious food they provide, the author mentions our heroine or anti-heroine (Holly Black writes a great anti-hero) eating a raisin cake with apple syrup and I literally had a light bulb moment.

Even if you haven't read the book this cake is worth a try. My apple syrup is a little thick and that was due to my timing of taking pictures, life of a blogger. So, the syrup can be made looser or thicker to match your preference.

Raisin Cake:

160g raisins
60ml apple juice
185g self-raising flour
60g plain flour
150g butter, cubed
140g light brown sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
apple syrup to serve (recipe below)

Heat the oven to 180C/350F - Start by soaking the raisins in the apple juice and leave aside for 10 minutes. While they chilling and soaking up all that juice line the base of a deep 7 in (17cm) round cake tin grease the sides of your tin, I always very lightly grease the baking paper too.

Melt the butter and sugar on a low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. While it's melting sift both of the flours into a large mixing bowl. Once the butter and sugar mixture is done mix with the raisins and then add to the flour. Add the eggs to the mixture and stir with a spatula/wooden spoon until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth it down as best as you can. Bake for 45-55 minutes, use the skewer test to confirm it's baked through. It will brown quicker then it will cook, so keep the golden brown color you want place a piece of tin foil over the top to help stop it from burning or becoming too dark on the top.

Leave to cool and make the apple syrup.

Apple Syrup:

2 tart apples, cored, peeled, and sliced thin
100g sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp water

Place all of the ingredients in a saucepan over a medium/high heat and bring to a boil before reducing the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the apples are soft and the sauce has thickened.

If you aren't using immediately take off the heat and place in a separate bowl as I left it and it thickened a little more then I would have liked. But it's all a personal preference!

Then pour over a slice of raisin cake and enjoy!

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
synopsis - Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
One terrible morning, Jude and her sisters see their parents murdered in front of them. The terrifying assassin abducts all three girls to the world of Faerie, where Jude is installed in the royal court but mocked and tormented by the Faerie royalty for being mortal.
As Jude grows older, she realises that she will need to take part in the dangerous deceptions of the fey to ever truly belong.
But the stairway to power is fraught with shadows and betrayal. And looming over all is the infuriating, arrogant and charismatic Prince Cardan . . .

*All opinions are my own, I bought my own copy of The Cruel Prince from amazon for my Kindle. For more information see my contact/policy page above!

Apple Season: A Round Up of Amazing Apple Recipes

Apples are one of my favorite things to bake with, probably because it pairs really well with cinnamon and cinnamon is my favorite spice.

As the apples on our apple tree started to ripen I was looking for ways to use up the abundance of apples it gave us this year. So, instead of just looking myself I was lazy and set up this linky so the apple recipes could come to me!

There are as many varieties of apples as there is recipes to use them in and here are some amazing ones....

Apple & Custard Lasagne

Foodie Quine

Spiced Apple Challah - Shaped 3 Ways (vegan)

Blackberry & Apple Crumble Cake

family friends food

Polish Apple Pancakes

Little Sunny Kitchen

Feast of Pink Lady Apples

(apple and fennel salad, pork, apple, and chorizo stew, and wholesome apple pie)

It's not easy being greedy

Honey Apple Mini Bundt Cakes

Apple Crumble and Custard Mini Cakes

Tin and Thyme

Freda’s apple and fruit loaf (thanks Freda)

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

How to Make Apple Butter

Feeding Boys and a Firefighter

Apple Crumble & Custard Cupcakes

Only Crumbs Remain

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

Cakeyboi a

Here are a few of my favorite apple bakes I've made here on United Cakedom:

Apple Pie Cheesecake Bars

Apple & Oatmeal Cookies

Apploffi Pie

Caramel Apple Pie Scones

Apple Pie Ice Cream

Butterscotch Apple Pudding

I hope you enjoyed reading and discovering all these apple recipes as much as I did! Let us know if you tried one out for yourself by leaving a comment below and/or on the blogger's page! Perhaps I will do another link up next year!

notes: not all the pictures are my own, the majority of them are taken from the linked blog, they are being used with the understanding that when linked up they would be used for this round-up

Double Apple Post: Butterscotch Apple Pudding & Apple Butter

We have a gorgeous apple tree in our garden that my husband planted when he was younger. About two years ago we had apples everywhere! As I was handing them out to friends and family I kept getting asked what type of apples they were and I had no clue!

Well I was was on Twitter and saw a tweet promoting Winchester Mill’s Apple Day. When I looked into it further they said that if you brought in your apples they would identify them for you. So, of course I had to go! I was told that they were pretty sure they were Spartan apples. They looked at the skin, shape, and most importantly the seeds. If you cut them in half it’s how the star is shaped.

Well, last years apple hull was disappointing, as it usually is after a good year, so I didn’t go crazy with apples. However, this year we have had loads! So, I’ve got to baking and eating! Here are two things I have made so far.

The first being a simple apple pudding from Rachel Allen and the second an American favorite Apple Butter.

The Butterscotch Apple Pudding is a super easy and comforting dessert. Just before your comforting roast or stew or pie in the oven start preparing this dessert. It can bake in the oven while you eat and then will be warm and ready for a big spoon of ice cream!

Butterscotch Apple Pudding

2 large or 3 average apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
125g self-rising flour
1/4 tsp salt
200g brown sugar,
100g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
200ml milk
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150ml boiling water, be sure to measure after the water is boiled

Heat the oven to 180C. Scatter the chopped apples evenly into the bottom of a 20x30cm ovenproof dish.
Put the flour, salt, and half the sugar (100g) into a bowl and gently whisk. In a jug measure out the milk and then add the melted butter, vanilla extract, and egg. Like when making muffins, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and whisk just until it’s mixed. Pour the mixture over the chopped apples.
To make the butterscotch put the golden syrup in a sauce pan with 150ml boiling water and the rest of the sugar (100g). Stir while the water is starting to boil and continue until the sugar has dissolved. It is a bit more liquidy then I thought it would have been, but don’t worry it all sorts out in the oven! Pour the sugar mixture over the batter as evenly as possible.
Pop it in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes, the sponge should be a golden light color and spring back when prodded.
I served mine with salted caramel ice cream, but feel free to use cream or custard or any other flavor of ice cream!

Apple Butter:

The next thing I made with all the excess apples we have hanging around was Apple Butter. There isn’t actually any butter in it, incase you didn’t know! There are many recipes out there and most of them American, because it’s an American thing. Apple Butter that is!

When you make Apple Butter it is better then having any-old smelling “Apple Spice” candle in your house, it makes the whole house smell delicious with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves how could it not?

My apple butter wasn’t as thick as I thought it should be, it’s possible because I didn’t do mine overnight, but through the day. So, when it was down to the 12th hour I was ready for bed! Perhaps I jumped the gun a little and blitzed it before it was ready. Oh well, it’s still tasty and a whole jar has already been used, with the majority of it being given to friends and family.

For the recipe visit Cakeyboi for his Easy Apple Butter which is the recipe I used! He’s also recently made Pumpkin Spice Latte Butter in his slow cooker! Thinking I might have to try that out next!!

notes: The recipe was adapted from Rachel Allen’s Home Cooking, but can also be found online here. The Winchester City Mill Day was talked about in this post here! I am currently rounding up the Apple Linky I hosted from early September to October so be prepared for lots of apple recipes! Apples have had a really good season this year!

Apple Season Link-Up

We've had an awful summer, but instead of being annoyed about that I am going to embrace my favorite time of year autumn!

One of the reasons I love this time of year is the food! Summer food is good lots of refreshing salads and loads of fruit, but autumn and winter bring in the root vegetables and comfort food that I love! That and it's apple season!

I miss the days going to an orchard to pick apples! I remember going as a fund raiser for my church youth group and having a blast! So, this linky is all about the apples! Unlike my last apple linky (see here) it's not just about baking! If you have any recipe to do with apples or if you have written about apple picking or apple fashion basically anything to do with apples link it up! I want to see it all!

How to Join in!

- Follow the instructions to link up 1-5 new or old apple posts with the inlinkz widget/gadget below.

- Tweet me @unitedcakedom with the hashtag #appleseason and I will like and RT.

- In your blog post please link back to this post so others can easily join in too! If you want to use the image above please do so, but it's not mandatory.

- Again not mandatory but linky's are all about sharing the love so if you have a moment please have a look at some of the other links and comment/share/like/RT or however you like to share the love!

What to expect from me!

- Already mentioned above I will RT/like any tweets I see with the above criteria.

- I will also add links to my Pinterest board Apple Season! which currently has 537 followers (please follow or have a look for ideas!)

- There will be a round-up post sometime in October where I will link back to your posts. An image from your post will be used so please let me know if this is not okay with you.

- I will attempt to comment on every post as well, but please be patient as I might only do it once a week! Same for adding to Pinterest I will do it as soon as I can!

Now all there is to do is link up! It's a one off linky which starts today and will end 6 weeks today, plenty of time to join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five on Friday: My Five Favorite Baking Ingredients

As a blogger I start a lot of my posts out with I love love love this or that. Apparently that's annoying. There was a person on twitter saying so. Ever since then I try really hard not to gush about my favorite types or flavors of bakes too much or in that way. I try to be a bit more natural about it.

However I do have a handful of favorite baking ingredients. If I had to choose between these five things I would have to walk away as I couldn't decide I love all of them!!

Apples:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! It counts if they are baked in pastry or cake or cookies!!

Check out my apple bakes!

Cinnamon:

Works so well in bakes!! It's got a bit of heat and always makes me think of fall/winter!

Things I've made with cinnamon!

Peanut Butter:

Reminds me of my childhood and tastes great paired with chocolate or on it's own!!

Look no further for my favorite recipes using peanut butter!

Coconut:

You either love it or you hate it!!

If you love it find recipes here!

Coffee:

I not only love drinking coffee, but I love coffee flavored cakes, frosting, ice cream, and so on!

See how I use coffee to enhance my baking!

What are your favorite things to bake with?

Apple Cinnamon Bundt

A is for Apple.

B is for Bundt

C is for Cinnamon

This cake is as easy as A-B-C 1-2-3! The batter for this cake is a bit more like a muffin batter, because you have all the wet ingredients mixed together and the dry mixed together and then you just combine them.

I like the easy things in life especially in the chaos of everyday life. Plus a good slice of cake makes life just a little bit better too.

This cake fits both criteria.

It’s easy to make and since it’s in a bundt pan there is no need to decorate, as it’s gorgeous as is! It isn't a big secret that I don't do a lot of fancy decorating when it comes to my cakes. Probably because I have been tricked by too many pretty cakes that had no flavor!

Trust is an easy thing to lose yet, very hard to gain back. So, while I am still building up a trust in gorgeous looking cakes, I will stick to the simple and wow looking ones like these!

It’s also a good cake, with a soft spongy texture and cinnamon apples spread through out, exactly what you need when life is being a little complicated.

Apple Cinnamon Bundt

2-3 tart apples

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

350g sugar

250ml sunflower oil

4 eggs

60ml apple juice

2 tsp vanilla extract

500g plain flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

½ tsp salt

Grease and flour a 10 or 12 cup bundt pan, leave aside. Peel and chop the apples into little cubes. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the apples and mix. Leave aside.

Heat the oven to 160C or 325F.

Whisk the sugar and oil together in a bowl until combined and a bit sloppy looking. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until just combined. Then add the apple juice and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together before sifting into the wet ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
Spoon a third of the batter into the bundt pan, then spread half of the apples over the batter before topping it with half of the remaining batter. The apples might be a bit watery try to leave the liquid behind. Then spread the rest of the apples and top with the remaining batter before placing in the oven to bake for an hour/60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Beware that the apples may make it look greasy when doing the skewer test, but just check in a few different places.

Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before turning it over and taking it out of the pan.

Slice and enjoy!

notes: This bundt was actually made for National Bundt Day, that day is November 15th. I am clearly not on top of my posting at the moment. So, here it is finally!

Apple Cinnamon Puffy Oven Pancakes

It’s Pancake Day!!

Or Shrove Tuesday, the day that precedes Lent.

Many Christian denominations celebrate Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day as a way to use up the rich or fatty foods they don't eat over Lent.

I don’t need an excuse to make pancakes.

Nor do I need an excuse to eat them.

However I will use any excuse to do both!

Plus it’s just silly not to eat pancakes on a day dedicated to pancakes.

I mean you’ll hurt their feelings.

No one wants that on his or her conscience.

Apple Cinnamon Puffy Oven Pancakes take a little more time to cook, but no more effort then normal pancakes.

They are good, definitely worth the extra time.

I say that about anything apple and cinnamon though so I’m a bit biased. I cut them up like a pizza, that way I could pick it up with my hands, way easier to eat that way!

Apple Cinnamon Puffy Oven Pancakes:

2 tbsp of butter

2 large eggs

½ cup plain flour

½ cup milk

¼ tsp salt

2 tbsp packed brown sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1 apple, peeled and sliced

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Place the butter in a 9 inch pie plate and place in the oven.

While you wait for it to melt, lightly beat the eggs before adding the flour, milk, and salt until just combined. Do not over mix.

Using oven mitts remove the pie plate tilt the pie plate until the bottom is covered with the butter, sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the melted butter.

Then arrange the sliced apple over the top before pouring the batter over them.

Bake 25-35 minutes or until puffy and a deep golden brown.

Immediately loosen the edge, I used a butter knife, and turn it upside down onto a plate or cutting board.

Cut up and serve as is or with maple syrup!

Enjoy!

I hope you all have a happy Pancake Day!!

What's your favorite type of pancake? Toppings?