Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
From the poem To Autumn by John Keats (1795 – 1821)
It never ceases to amaze me how my late father, born in 1940 in Malacca (a town in Malaya so small and so quiet they nicknamed it The Sleepy Hollow), loved English poetry so much. He must have had amazing teachers and access to some fine books. But I really also think that he was naturally a brilliant person: always curious, always inquisitive, always observing, always learning. He had the Chinese character for bright (明/ ming) in his name and he absolutely lived up to its meaning.
The poem above was one he used to recite (I mentioned it last year on a post for chillies). It talks of Autumn teaming up with the late-Summer sun, blessing us with a bountiful harvest. Amongst other things, trees heavily laden with apples and hazel shells filled with sweet kernels (the nut inside). This is the inspiration for this autumnal cake.
The weather has been idyllic, like the romantic images this poem evokes, until this last week. We have had two storms in the past few days; Austen and Boelo. Storms are named afresh each year, and they always start at the letter A. Someone should protest. If you are named e.g. Xavier you could almost guarantee the storm season will stop before it gets to your name/ alphabet.
The naming of apples is also interesting. In my fruit bowl I had different varieties of red apples: Jazz, Scarlet Paradise and Kissabel. If you did not know these were apples, you might imagine they were a trio of Soho bars. Kissabel is very interesting as it is red inside. The green apples are Granny Smith, which sounds a bit more stern.
My bowl of apples (top) and the inside of a Kissabel apple (below)
Having very little time today, I resorted to using my Thermomix and adapting a previous carrot cake recipe. This apple and hazelnut cake is even simpler. It takes 10 minutes to prepare and 50 minutes to bake. When the cake was in the oven, I used he waiting time to finish the household chores that needed attention.
For the Cake:
80 g plain flour
80 g wholemeal flour or wholegrain spelt flour
1½ teaspoons pumpkin spice (see below)
¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
large pinch of fine sea salt
180 g red apples (skin on, prepared weight), in large chunks
110 g light brown soft sugar
30 g crème fraîche or sour cream
110 g sunflower oil
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
80 g whole skinless hazelnuts
Pumpkin Spice:
8 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Place all the spices in a jar and gently mix with a small fork. Check that the spices are evenly distributed. This amount will cover around eight cakes. Use the amount stated in each cake recipe.
This is my own blend, created when I made some pumpkin cake recently. The cake is still a work in progress and I will post the recipe soon.
The cake can be baked in a 2-lb loaf tin, 6-cup Bundt pan, 20 cm/ 8 inch square or round cake tin. I made the cake batter in a Thermomix, and it can also be made in a food processor. If making in any conventional way, grate the apples and finely chop the hazelnuts before adding to the cake batter.
How to Make:
Preheat oven to 160°C fan/ 180°C.
Place a sieve directly over the top of the TM bowl. Weigh and sift in the flours, pumpkin spice, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Remove the sieve.
Add the apple, sugar, crème fraîche, oil, eggs, vanilla and hazelnuts. Mix 15 seconds/ speed 5.
Scrape down the sides of the TM bowl with a silicon spatula (I never use the TM spatula), and give everything a good stir.
Pour the batter into the baking tin.
Bake in the preheated oven for 50 – 55 minutes, or until the cake bounces back slightly when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Cool the cake on a metal rack before slicing and serving.
This is a good cake to eat in the two months leading up to Christmas, as we need to exercise restraint before the feasting that is ahead
