Vanilla cake with cream and spiced honey and apple syrup

So this evening, S decided at about 10pm he wanted cake. And not just any old cake, he wanted one of my vanilla cakes. He hasn't had one in awhile since I've been making a lot of butter cakes. And he requested I bake the apples that we have in the fridge. I generally like baked apples, but not with cake... and not without a stuffing. And as I had nothing to stuff them with, I had to think of something else.

I've never made a fruit syrup before, so we jumped online to have a quick look around and see just what I needed. I didn't want any surprises when it wasn't working! Thank goodness fruit syrup is as easy as pie (filling)! With no reason to say no other than "It's really late, and we really shouldn't be eating something so naughty" I dived right in!

Vanilla cake

I make my vanilla cake much smaller than most recipes call for, but here's the one that I use. I generally half it since there's only two of us.


Ingredients

• 2 cups (500 mL) sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2-1/2 cups (625 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (250 mL) milk
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) vegetable oil
• 2-1/4 teaspoons (11 mL) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line two 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans or one 9x13-inch (23 x 33 cm) rectangular baking pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper and the sides of the pan well.
2. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs together until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Add flour, milk, oil, baking powder, and vanilla and beat for another minute, just until the batter is smooth and creamy. Don't overbeat. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan(s).
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick poked into the center of the layer comes out clean. (A single rectangular pan will take longer to bake than two round ones.) Loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a thin knife, then turn out onto a rack and peel off the paper. Let cool completely before covering with frosting, if desired.

Spiced honey and apple syrup

 As I mentioned above, we went online to find a recipe or some kind of guide on how to make a fruit syrup. I was saddened (but not as much as S) to discover that they all said to strain the syrup from the pulpy goodness at the end. One site actually recommended "giving it to the kids" which made S very sad indeed. He also sulked when they said to peel the apples first.


So armed with a bunch of rules we didn't want to follow I said "well, what bits are probably the most important?" The water to fruit ratio was probably the only advice I took!


Ingredients

• 3 Granny Smith apples (enough to make four cups)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 clove
• 1 tbpsn of honey (generous)
• 2-3 tbspn apple port
• Cinnamon and Cardamom to personal taste.

Cooking Instructions

1. Roughly chop the apples, better to be roughly chopped rather than precision cutting so that some turn all mushy and others hold their shape. This isn't a runny syrup you'd find in a bottle!
2. Add the apples, water, clove, cinnamon and cardamom to a large pot and bring to the boil. Add the honey and apple port, as you turn the pot down to a gentle simmer. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. We're using honey instead of sugar since its much better for you, and honey loves apples.
3. Simmer gently while the vanilla cake is cooking in the oven and let it go syrupy and thick. When you're satisfied with the consistency (it's all a matter of personal taste) move it to a bowl to stop the cooking process.

Vanilla cake with cream and spiced honey and apple syrup

Assembled! I sprinkled the top of the cake with a mix of cinnamon sugar I keep stored especially for this particular cake. I bake it a lot. You could use whipped cream, but S and I adore double cream (soooo naughty!). For my first ever spiced honey and apple syrup was DEE-LISH-US! I mean, oh my God, for something I wouldn't let myself taste test as I went this turned out better than I could ever have dreamed.


Its now midnight, and S has gone for seconds already. Anticipating seeing him sneak past for thirds any minute now.


Good eating!
Annean
xx