Autumn feelings

Hello readers,

Autumn is seriously knocking in here. In Holland it's been around 15 degrees Celsius for a couple of weeks (which is pretty rare in October/November), but next week it'll be colder, more storming and the weathermen even predicted snow.. Time for a classic, autumn-flavoured bake! :)

Autumn reminds me of coming home in a warm home, after walking through a rainy storm. Getting a mug of hot chocolate or tea and sit down with a blanket and watch a movie. Warm, comfy, trusted. There is only one baked good that comes to my mind with that description.

Caaaake!! <3

Yes, I'm talking about an apple-cinnamon (and crumble) cake! Nothing beats the smell of an apple-cinnamon cake in the oven <3 Don't you just love it when your whole house smells like apples and cinnamon? I know I do!

Lots of people buy a cake mix in the stores for an apple-crumble cake, because they believe it's hard to bake such a cake yourself. It really isn't! And the taste is a lot better and more natural too. All you gotta do, is bake a regular vanilla cake, and add apples and cinnamon. Add crumbles too if you like! Even the regular vanilla cake is one of the easiest bakes to master.

Here is a basic recipe I always use when baking a vanilla cake or an apple-cinnamon cake:

Vanilla cake
- 200 grams of butter
- 200 grams of sugar
- seeds of 1 vanilla pod
- a pint of salt
- 4 medium sized eggs
- 200 grams of self-raising flour

- a cake tin
- baking parchment
- a bit of butter

For the apple-cinnamon cake (text colour red), use the top recipe and add:
- 1 apple
- 3 tablespoons of cinnamon

Easy ingredients, easy instructions, here we go :)

Beautiful cake mixture you're about to make! 

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees Celsius. Butter the cake tin and put a piece of baking parchment in it. If you don't have baking parchment, use some flour. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod. Be sure to use the back of your knife, we don't want to leave seeds behind or to damage them!

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds (make sure it looks pale). Add the eggs one by one. Make sure the added egg is well-mixed with the butter mixture before adding the next. Add all of them at once and you will get a big soggy mess that won't mix well. So one at the time!

Sift in the self-raising flour and salt and mix at high speed for 1 minute.

This part is for the apple-cinnamon bit :) apples and crumbles! 

Make sure you get a sturdy, bit of sourish apple. Sturdy is important, it needs to keep its form in the oven at 170 degrees! Cut it in tiny cubes and add to the cake mix. Add the cinnamon (add more or less to flavour, but I like my cinnamon, so three tablespoons is recommended :) ) and mix well. 

Good luck cake! Do your work! ... I'm talking to a cake, sorry. 

Put the mixture in the cake tin. For the apple-cinnamon cake, you can add a bit of crumble if you like. For this, mix 120 grams of flour, 120 grams of (brown) sugar, a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and knead it until crumbles form. You can also use a fork, but kneading it with your hands is a lot more fun :) Sprinkle over the cake. 

Place the cake tin in the oven and bake until golden brown (50-60 minutes). Test if the cake is ready by poking in a bamboo sewer. If it comes out clean, it's ready. Leave it to cool in the baking tin for 5 minutes, then remove and let it cool on a cake rack.

Lovely crumbles... :D

And there you've got yourself a delicious, moist (;)) cake with vanilla or apple-cinnamon. Adding whipped cream with apple bakes is always a big bonus. Try it out :)

A simple cake like this is always a big favourite on birthdays at work. I read somewhere that nowhere in the world people use the same work tradition as in Holland. Usually, when someone has his/her birthday at work, the colleagues treat him/her to cake.

In Holland it's very common for the birthday boy/girl to bring the cake for colleagues :) Funny, huh? I always bring my home-baked goods on my birthday (June 17th). They usually get eaten pretty fast.. :)

That's all for today! Have a lovely Sunday, where ever you are :) See you soon!

Happy weekend! *nomnomnom*

Love, Rebecca