Cakey Disaster

Well it happens ever so often...

I finally got into the kitchen today after a busier-than-usual week doing DIY stuff. I have missed baking. Its such a chill-out activity for me, I can gather my thoughts and focus on each operation of the process. Its a clarity of mind thing.

Anyway, I knocked together a batch of traditional gingernut biscuits to start off, just because there were only a couple of hobnobs left in the packet and you NEED biscuits to live. They are an old favourite, so its a no-brainer when it comes to process. I make them extra gingery and add some cinnamon because thats the way we like it, even though its not part of the recipe.

As I was doing this our next door neighbour who we have been plying with free eggs from our hens, showed up with two massive bags of Bramley apples from his tree. So a Devonshire Apple Cake was decided to be the first option to use some of the apples. I have been meaning to have a go at this cake for a while and have been hanging out and waiting for the apples to start dropping.

So - get the mix together. Its a standard cake mix - flour, eggs, fat, sugar - add some chopped walnuts and sultanas and blitz in the mixer for a couple of minutes. No problem. Grate apples. Prep tim. All the usual stuff. No real difficulty here. Pour in half the mix. Spread out the grated apples and dust with cinnamon. Put on other half of mix.

Dont have the right size cake pan. Oh dear. What a time to find this out. Still, its only an inch under what the recipe calls for so I figure it will be fine. Hm.

The cake goes in and is set for and hour and a quarter. The buzzer goes and I peek in. There is cake mix all over the floor of the oven and down the sides of the pan. Bugger. No worries, so it wont look too good, but at least it should taste nice. I try with the tester and it comes out clean. So out it comes and starts to cool on the wire tray.

After doing a bunch of other stuff (including prepping some raw horseradish from the garden which I will talk about later), making pizza dough and bathing the baby. I come downstairs, have dinner and we are going to have cake and tea as dessert. Slice into cake. Big gooey mess of a cake.

Right now we are about three hours after I starting making the thing and its only just come out of the oven. So either the cooking time is off or the oven is on the blink.

There are some pics to follow, but hopefully it will at least taste nice and be fully cooked by now.

Keep your fingers crossed ;)