FOOD: A sticky cake to feed the soul

Well done everyone for getting through the summer and whatever it brought your way (not much sunshine in Mayo, unfortunately!). As the evenings draw in it is natural to take stock of where we are and embrace a slower pace of life.

As I see the season’s produce filling the shelves in local shops, I got to thinking – isn’t it funny how we can fixate on recipes and technique without thinking about where the ingredients comes from? Us humans have a tendency to avoid asking the big questions on an ongoing basis, but this one is key to our existence.

What is the point of being attracted to lifestyles or ways of living if we are not actually aware of where the things we put into our bodies come from? Over-intensive production practices and unhealthy chemicals are often used to get the meat and veg to our plates more cheaply, but ultimately this is not good for our health, it’s not good for the planet, and it should not be encouraged. Indeed, it should be actively discouraged.

When I work in our kitchen with Chef Peter, we talk, and he brought to my attention a saying they have in Poland that refers to part of how we live today: ‘feeding the senses’. It makes total sense to me as a description for how we live presently – endless consumerism and consumption, a focus on the superficial pleasures of taste, appearance and style, and too great a focus on the monetisation of all commodities. The antidote to this feeding of the senses is to ‘feed the soul’, by using whole, natural foods, produced in sustainable and ethical ways, when you can.

RECIPE

Honey cake with caramelised apples

Autumn is a great time for locally grown apples, and this is a great dessert to enjoy around the table with friends and family. Warming, sweet, with a hint of spices.

What you need

For the honey cake:

350g plain flour

2 free-range eggs, beaten

340g honey

1 tsp instant coffee

1 teabag

200g caster sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

1 clove, crushed

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150 ml vegetable oil

200ml of boiling water

For the caramelised apples:

2 sweet apples cored and cut into 8 pieces

100g caster sugar

1 tsp honey

1 lemon – juice and zest

What to do

Place the instant coffee powder and teabag in a jug and add 200ml of boiling water, and allow to steep. In a bowl or in a mixer, mix the oil, sugar, honey and eggs together. In another bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and clove together, then add them to the bowl with the sugar, honey and eggs and mix all together. Finally, add in your coffee/tea blend (minus the teabag!) and mix again.

Grease a cake tin that’s approximately 12 inches wide and line it with baking paper. Pour in your cake mix and cook in an oven preheated to 180ºc for 30 minutes, then turn and bake for a further 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out a little damp but not gooey. The cake should be ‘bouncy’. Remove and place on a cooling rack.

For the caramelised apples, toss the apples in lemon juice and a few strips of zest. Put the honey and sugar in a small saucepan and add a splash of water, and cook over a medium heat until it begins to caramelise. Add the apples to saucepan and stir so that they soften and get coated in the caramel. Serve slices of the cake with the caramelised apples on the side or on top, and add a good drizzle of the sticky cooking syrup.

This cake can taste even better the next day. Enjoy!