What I’m reading: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. Yet another recommendation from my sister, Emma - which I devoured in one day. I loved this - insightful and relevant and warm. I also had that wonderful moment of realisation that Sittenfeld has written a lot of other books, which helped to mitigate the inevitable sadness of finishing a really good book.
What I’m listening to: Amelia Dimoldenberg on Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster. Definitely a light-hearted listen (though I must object to Amelia’s apparent ambivalence towards butter vs. margarine).
What I’m eating: a pie from Blue Rose in Sandringham, Auckland. Blue Rose came highly recommended, and the pie was pretty epic - I got pulled pork and Sophie got chicken and leek. I really wanted to try the hangi pie (with pork belly, stuffing, kumara and pumpkin), but they don’t come out until lunchtime, so I’m going to have to return
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After a somewhat hectic week of hot cross buns, followed by a chocolate-laden Easter weekend, I wanted to bake something simple on my days off. A loaf cake (strictly no choc or dried fruit), perfect with a cuppa. I think this is actually what would be called a coffee cake in the US - not because it’s coffee flavoured, but because you’re meant to have it with coffee. I won’t be calling it that because I feel it invites unnecessary confusion, but I will most certainly be having it with one of my morning coffees.
Apples are in season in New Zealand at the moment - as in, they’re currently being harvested across the country. I feel like this hardly means anything anymore, though, since apples tend to be available year round in most developed countries. With other fruit and vegetables, this is often because they are imported from other countries (with more favourable climates), but with apples, it’s actually quite likely that they are grown here, and just kept in storage to be pulled out of hibernation at various intervals during the year. They’re kept in containers where temperature, humidity and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are controlled, so that they can be enjoyed year round. Although this is arguably the best case scenario (rather than buying fruit that has to travel a long way), I still find a certain romance in eating seasonally: berries and tomatoes in summer, forced rhubarb in early spring, root vegetables in winter. Therefore, as we are undeniably entering autumn in New Zealand, here’s a recipe for a triple apple loaf cake that me and my housemates have been happily munching this week.
In the interests of making this apple cake extra apple-y, I’ve gone for a three-pronged approach.
Baked apples (of the eating variety, I think mine were Royal Gala)
Chopped apples (again, eaters)
Apple cider vinegar
The apple cider vinegar is actually multi-purpose: it contributes to the apple flavour, but let’s be honest, not hugely. It also reacts with the baking soda, which is alkaline (while the vinegar is acidic), helping the cake to rise in the oven. I also find that whenever you’re making a cake with baking soda in it, it’s helpful to ramp up the acidity - whether that’s with dairy like buttermilk or yogurt or sour cream, citrus like lemon juice or straight-up vinegar - as it kind of helps to neutralise the flavour of the baking soda (which I can’t stand), while also creating that magical chemical reaction (acid+alkaline) that helps the cake to rise.
recipe: triple apple cake
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