Recipe: Thelma's Apple Cake

Prior to getting married, my bridesmaids (and aren’t girlfriends and old friends such a blessing!) threw me a champagne breakfast hen’s party, which incidentally started at breakfast but continued with tea, champagne and leftovers, well into the late afternoon. When the girls issued invitations, they also asked that each girlfriend who attended brought a copy of their favorite recipe(s), to add to a folder of newlywed favorites, presented to me during the breakfast.

This gem came from Milly, originally from Beverley, WA. I can’t remember if Thelma is a distant relative, as the other recipes from the family included recipes from three generations of Williamson-related women. The other potential source would be a CWA publication of Beverley / Dale / York region recipes. I’d recently watched an episode of The Cook and the Chef wherein Maggie and Simon explored the joys of hearty country cooking and baked goods, and a visit to the Williamson’s farm in Beverley always results in admiration for the Mrs Farmers out there who churn out hot breakfasts, fresh-baked goods for morning tea, a selection of sandwiches for lunch, more goodies for afternoon tea and then pudding on top of a full roast meal afterwards! I find that baking doesn’t come as naturally to me, as say, concocting elaborate dinner parties for a table of six, so I am particularly gleeful when I find such a simple cake that works a treat every time…well I expect it to now, as it worked beautifully the first time, last night, as an impulsive pre-dinner bake session!

Confession: I tried cupcakes for Sarvenator’s birthday party on Saturday, and I needed an excuse to finish off the excess of honey spiced icing.

Solution:

Thelma’s Apple Cake

Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare (grease and flour or line with g-p paper) a single deep tin (with hole in the middle…cakes baked for parties able to supply its technical name…) or two shallow pizza tins.

In a large bowl, mix:

1 cup flour

1 t baking soda

1 t allspice

1 t cinnamon

1 ½ cup sugar

Add:

½ cup walnuts

2 apples, peeled and cored and roughly cubed (I used my whiz bang apple thing again to produce lovely discs for me)

½ cup sultanas or raisins or currants (or cranberries? Goji berries? How about dried mangoes with macadamias instead? Or strawberries and pine nuts? Oo…)

Add:

215g melted butter

1 egg (No eggs at home! So I looked up substitutes online…didn’t have bananas or applesauce on hand, but the ¼ c measure (total) with 3t milk whisked in with olive oil (remainder) worked well)

Mix well (expect a thick mixture), pour into tin(s), bake for about 50 minutes (fan-forced), cool and ice.

The top is delightfully crispy because of the melted butter, and the base is quite soft. Bake longer if you want a firmer result, one tin turned out only good for pudding because I booched its removal from the tin, and the other got iced for sharing.

The icing was a variation on a butter cream, wherein you beat the butter, honey, sugar and spices for two minutes, swirl icy cold water over and tip it out, and then beat for another two minutes, repeating the process about four to five times. The icing just gets more white and fluffy and the honey aroma just wafts around the kitchen. Very weird, but the ice water doesn’t glug up the mix, it just whirls over and tips out, still clear, which makes sense when you think about it, but I don’t usually go round pouring water into the butter tub or honey pot…!