A Birthday cake for Ms. Rose

So it was Rose's birthday on Saturday. But, alas, she couldn't celebrate as she had a dissertation to get written. Try as she my to go out for drinks, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. So instead she went out last night (a school night, ahem) so I couldn't go with her to celebrate.

To make up for it I sent my sister along with a cake I had specially prepared for Rose, with the accompanying note:


To be precise it was a Caramel Apple Loaf cake and it went a little bit like this:


175g soft butter, plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp cinnamon
4 rounded tbsp Greek yogurt
2 eating apples
50g walnuts , very roughly chopped, plus 1 tbsp extra, chopped
50g soft toffees (I used Werther's chewy toffees)
2 tbsp double cream

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line the base and ends with a long strip of baking paper.

Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until pale, then beat in the eggs, one by one.

Tip in the flour, cinnamon and yogurt.

Peel, core and chop apples into small chunks, then add to the bowl and mix everything together with a wooden spoon.

Scrape into the tin, smooth the top and scatter the walnuts down the middle.


Bake on a middle shelf for 1 hr 20-30 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool in the tin.

To decorate, put the toffees in a small saucepan with the double cream.

Gently heat, stirring, until toffees have melted into a smooth caramel sauce.

Cool for about 1 min while you gently turn out the cake.

Slowly drizzle the toffee sauce over the top of the cake.

Scatter immediately with the extra walnuts - they should stick where they hit toffee.

And here is the finished article:


And off Sophie went to deliver it.