But it IS Healthy

The first baking event of 2012 was cake. I thought about muffins but that was pushed from my mind when, in cleaning, I stumbled across an apple banana cake. I had apples and bananas. In fact, I had everything on the ingredient list and it made a 9 x 13 pan so I can cut the cake into individual pieces to take for lunch.

 

Start by grating 4 large apples. I had problems. Peeling the apples made my hand hurt, quite a bit. I went through 3 knives before finding one that allowed me to peel without too much pain. It was discouraging and I almost gave up. But what would I do with 1 peeled and grated apple? Grating wasn't the problem. Holding the apple and manipulating it to peel it was. 

Once that was done, I mixed everything and baked it for an hour. I love eating the peels when I have to peel and core an apple. All afternoon, as I did other things, I would wander back into the kitchen, break off another slice of peel and munch on it. My house smelled heavenly. In fact, heaven better smell like this or I'm not going. The mix of apple, banana and cinnamon was delightful. 

Viola! Finished cake. Oh yeah, there are walnuts in it too because I like nuts. It is really tasty when warm and adding whipped cream, it's so good. 

I was cutting it into pieces to freeze and realized, I forgot to add the 2 eggs the recipe called for. There are 4 cups of grated apples, 2 smashed bananas, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, 2 cups each of flour and sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. That's it. I remember reading that I needed eggs, but I didn't pull them out of the fridge when I went to get the bananas sitting on top of the fridge. Poof. Completely forgotten. The cake is so good without the eggs, but now I have an excuse to make it again and add the eggs. 

I think I've made a cake like this where there aren't eggs. They have to be eaten fast; like that's a problem; or frozen because they are so moist they will mold if left out at room temperature for a few days. I tossed 12 packages of cake into the freezer Sunday night, saving 2 packages to take to work. One piece was eaten for lunch and the second was eaten at 3, when you get those mid-afternoon doldrums. I had a piece last night for a late night snack. 45 seconds in the microwave and I had cake!

I also wonder, if I vary the kind of apple, how the flavor will change. I made this with honeycrisp apples. They were on sale and have a sweet taste already. I wondered if I could have cut down on the amount of sugar in the cake because the apples were sweet. 2 cups is an awful lot. Maybe if this was made with Granny Smith apples which are naturally tart, 2 cups would make sense. The recipe just says "apples". So there is one more reason to make it more often. Taste tests! I'm betting I could find volunteers for this "science". 

Now to clean up the kitchen tonight as I had to wash pants for work last night. 

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb