Weekend Apple Walnut Cake

This past weekend I was home with the flu.

Just before it kicked in I watched a great documentary by Michael Pollan called Cooked. And within this documentary someone said a very interesting thing: "if we told someone who was craving dessert, such as an apple pie, that he could have as much as he wanted, that he could it the whole thing if he wished, AS LONG AS he made that pie himself..He probably would not have it at all...".

It really made me think. It is true, most of us end up eating unhealthy snacks or sweets or desserts or some other kind of processed foods just because they are there, ready available, sometimes we might not even be that hungry but they are there. We might just be bored. And end up having something containing ingredients we might not even be able to pronounce...

So on Sunday, when I started to feel a bit better and started craving something sweet and comforting. I decided to use the time it took for my flatmate to take a shower, to get up and whip up a home-made apple cake. My first one. Gluten and dairy free.

I am always worried about making "healthier" version of desserts as Patch (my flatmate) is often not convinced... But this time he was happy and asked for seconds!

So here it is, takes 10 minutes to put together and 35 to cook. Enjoy.x

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup plant milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

2 flax-eggs (a total of 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds and 6 tbsp water mixed together)

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

2 handful of walnuts

2 organic apples

HOW TO..

Pre heat your oven on fan, 180C.

Mix together the dry ingredients. Add milk and flax-eggs and mix it all until smooth. Slice you apples thinly (after washing them of course and ps: I kept the skin on) and add 3/4 to the mix and keep 1/4 to add on top. Add all walnuts.

I used a round baking tin, but a heart shaped one would have been cuter...Lined it with baking paper and added the mix. Then added the last 1/4 of apples on top.

Pop the cake in the oven for 35 minutes. When you take it out just check that a knife comes out fairly dry (you have lots of apples in so there will be some moisture) and leave to cool for 20 minutes.

Both me and Patch were still poorly, so we enjoyed it with a Camomile, vanilla and manuka honey tea. And a good movie!

Hope you'll like it too.

xxx

Valentina