Moist Non-Ex-Boyfriend's-Mother Apple Cake

One of the suckiest things about breaking up is all the relationships you lose along with your boyfriend/girlfriend. I know this is nothing new, but the other day when I was trying to figure out what to do with the bagillion apples occupying my hallway (related to the trillion kiwifruit that lead to this kiwi cake), the first thing I thought of was an apple cake that my ex-boyfriend’s mother used to make. It was damn good. So good we would beg her to make us one before his parents would come to visit. So good we would freeze some to save for emergencies. So good that I almost picked up the phone to call her for the recipe. I miss that apple cake. So maybe my opening line should have been: One of the suckiest things about breaking up is the food you’ll no longer get from your ex’s parents. And the recipes you can no longer make, because really that’s just weird, making a cake for your current partner when it was a favourite of your previous partner. You get all kinds of crossover emotions and cooties and gross things when you do that.


This box of fruit has been sitting, lurking, waiting for me to do something with it.

I’m pretty sure that one of the unwritten rules about breakups is that you don’t really keep anything associated with the ex. Ideally all of it goes into one big ritual cleansing bonfire that you dance around like a banshee, but we all know that some stuff lingers around. I got a set of luggage one Christmas, and those suitcases have followed me all the way around the world, refusing to die so that I can replace them. Until now! Jonno and I bought a suitcase over the weekend for our joint use, and I can finally expunge the last bits of the ex-boyfriend from my life.

Two things that have nothing to do with the ex-boyfriend: strawberry-covered pavlova and MY apple cake.  Yesssss.

In the spirit of purging and being haunted by a box of apples, I decided that I would make an apple cake, but I would make my own apple cake, damnit! [Please note that this is a big thing for a girl whose awareness of how to make cakes did not extend beyond what came in a box before a few years ago.] So I found a recipe on Tasty Kitchen that I thought used a lot of liquid (a CUP of oil?! Srsly?!), but gave it a shot because it looked the least complicated and I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen. Result? Uh-MAZE-ing!!!

Then I tweaked it a little, just to give it that something extra, and it actually provoked emails of thanks from the workmates today. I’m not sure where that ranks of the Scale of Baking Gratitude and Glory, but I’ll take it! Et voila, a new go-to recipe whenever there are too many apples staring me in the face and making hostile threats of biological warfare.


Apple cake is a good reason to stop pottering!  (Those are my upside-down pots too, exciting!)

Moist Apple Cake
Time: 1 hour

• 3 cups apples (3 large, 5 small), diced
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 whole large eggs or 4 whole small eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
• icing sugar for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F.  Grease and line a springform pan.
2. Mix oil, eggs and vanilla in large bowl.  Add sugars and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt and baking soda together.  Add to wet ingredients and throughly incorporate.
4. Fold in apples and nuts.
5. Pour batter in pan and cover with aluminum foil as it may spatter over the edge.  Bake for 50 - 60 minutes - a skewer should come out clean.
6. Garnish with sifter icing sugar over the top.