I have a MILLION blog posts to catch up on, and I'm hoping to get our trip to NYC and a post about my breastfeeding journey so far up soon, perhaps a little Christmas gift guide too. But for now I wanted to share the best apple cake recipe I've ever made. I know we're past peak apple season now but I hope to make this throughout the year - apple cake is one of my ultimate favourites and I've searched high and low for a recipe like this! The icing is heaven too.

We have a couple of small apple trees at our allotment and I normally spend a weekend afternoon each year cooking them down and prepping them for the freezer ready for the autumn/winter. This year, with a baby, I gave up on that idea but I did get round to making this cake at least. 

I found the recipe online here - at the cooking blog 'Cooking for my Soul'

Ingredients;

3 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 medium apples {although I used large apples from my parents tree} - any variety really, the cake will have enough sugar in to take cooking apples, cubed {I didn't bother to peel them}

Maple glaze;

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1 cup of icing sugar

1 pinch of salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts to decorate {original recipe uses pecans, I used walnuts}

Method;

I used a bundt tin for this {the recipe states a 12 cup but with any recipe I'd recommend filling whatever tin you have 2/3 full}.

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and grease a cake tin with butter

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until evenly distributed.

3. In another bowl combine eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla and the yogurt, mix until smooth.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and use a whisk or spatula to mix until the batter is combined & even without overmixing. With a spatula, fold in the diced apples.

5. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Let it cool on a wire rack completely before carefully removing it from the tin. {run a knife around the inside and outside of the bundt and invert onto a plate carefully}

6. When cool, make the icing glaze - melt the butter and maple syrup in a small pan. Remove from the heat and whisk in the icing sugar and a pinch of salt, Let it cool a little but drizzling over the cake. I left mine for a while and it almost turned into fudge! But was amazing. 

Then top with the chopped nuts to decorate.

Will keep in a tin for a few days {and almost gets better with age as it's so 'moist' - I know that's such an annoying cake term!} 

R <3 xx