Local Fruit in January

I try to eat local. I do. In the summer I gorge on beautiful berries and melons and tomatoes and I tell myself that this is absolutely okay because in the winter I will ration and I will eat root vegetables and i will like them so help me god. And this plan works beautifully in the fall on the first day when you can see your breath and the squash are so ripe and roast them with apples that burst at the skin they’re so sweet and juicy. Doesn’t it sound marvellous?

Tragically the apples aren’t quite as nice anymore. The flavour is there but they don’t have that perfect crunchy juicy fall feeling anymore, which makes sense really, it’s not fall anymore.  BUT that doesn’t mean they’re not good for baking. Au contraire mon amis they can be delicious for baking. So today we’re making apple cake.

This is one of my all time favourite cake recipes. It easily makes the jump from apples to blueberries and, if you have the patience to pit them, it’s amazing with cherries. It makes absolutely wonderful muffins and a terrific coffee cake with a little crumble on top but a friend of mine bought me the sweetest mini bundt pans so I used those instead.  And though this might sound a little decadent, I’m pretty sure I’ll be eating one for breakfast tomorrow!

Local Apple Cake

2 apples, nearly any kind will do

½ cup sugar

½ cup Butter

1 cup Brown Sugar

3 Eggs

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 cup Sour Cream

1tsp Vanilla

·         Preheat oven to 375F if using small molds, 350 if a larger pan.

·         Chop up apples into small-ish chunks. Put in a pot with sugar and cover with water. Simmer until soft, about 10 minutes. Cool.·         Using the paddle attachment on an electric mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes

·         Add in eggs one at a time scraping down the sides of the bowl in between each addition.

·         Keep motor running on high for about 5 minutes to really get the eggs beat. The mixture might split but don’t worry, it will come back when you add in the dry ingredients.

·         Bring the motor down to low and add in half the dry ingredients, then all the sour cream and vanilla and then the rest of the dry.

·         Fold in the apples.

Put into buttered and floured pan and bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with only a couple crumbs on it

I dusted mine with icing sugar but as  ate it i realized it would be incredible with a little maple syrup drizzled ontop…