Vanilla Apple Cake

ただいま～！It's great to be back! Well, it's great that my helper is back. I had to work from home for the past 2 weeks when she was not around. First, Ah Girl cried for the first 2 days because she missed her. Then she fell sick. Next, Ah Boy fell sick too, with me following suit. Work has been crazy to start with. I thought I had it planned. Turned out that I overlooked certain areas and miscalculated production quantities required (instead of 1,200 sheets, I wrote 120 sheets! What the ...!). The production line was chaotic, I have to apologise to my staff, especially my colleague who covered for me while I was away. Sorry! Morale was real low and it didn't help that I had to stay up till 4 or 5 in the morning to get some of the office work done. I was coughing, sneezing and lost my voice for a couple of days.

Anyhow, I survived. I worked, I cooked, I cleaned, I didn't die of exhaustion, yet. However, I apologise to those who left comments for me. I was unable to reply due to 1) I didn't have time to blog, 2) I log on at night but those little hours I have, I need to do work. I also learnt a couple of things during my helper's absence. 1) I really, really enjoy being with my kids. A part of me wants to stay at home with them. 2) I can be really, really naggy. So much so that Ah Girl said it is better for me to go to work so that I do not nag at her that much. 3) Time management is important. 4) Sometimes, things appeared impossible because you see them as so.

Okay, back to this cake. This is an entry for this month's Sweet and Simple Bakes event. I had a couple of backlogs to cover but as the deadline's today, I have to publish this first. I just had time to bake this Vanilla Apple Cake this morning. While baking this, the aroma that filled the kitchen could kill you (in a good way, of course!)! How can something so simple, be so satisfying? I couldn't wait for it to cool completely to have a slice. IH commented that it would be great to have this cake, warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. For once, he was right. I didn't make any ice cream but I would definitely try it out when I bake this cake again. This recipe is a keeper! I did a couple of changes and here's my version.

Vanilla Apple Cake
Ingredient
6oz Salted Butter, softened
120g Fine Sugar
30g Molasses
4 Eggs, beaten
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
250g Self Raising Flour, sifted

3 small Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
2 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
¼ Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method
1) Preheat oven to 170 degree C. Grease a 7 inch loose base round tin.

2) In a mixing bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the caster sugar and butter together until the mixture turns pale and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually and add vanilla essence.

3) Add in sifted flour, dampen it and turn on the mixer on low speed and mix till batter is smooth. Pour batter into the prepared tin and arrange the apple wedges on top. Press them slightly into the batter when you are done. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

4) Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until skewer comes clean. Leave to cool for a few mins, then release the tin and cool the cake completely on a wire rack.

*Note : I tented the cake and only removed the aluminium foil in the last 10 minutes.

**Note : The batter is rather thick but the cake will be moisten by the apples and sprinkled sugar during baking.

じゃね～～　I have to go deal with those backlogs and reply to some comments.