Armenian Apple Cake

[Jubal]

So, my house has a couple of apple trees in the back garden, from which I got a nice little crop (mainly of russets) soon after I got here.


These apples having been around for a while (the above picture is a month or so old), they're starting to get past their best so I figured I should process the rest of them before they're all horrible. Hence, apple cake - for which I found an interesting looking recipe which is apparently Armenian.

Ta-da! It's even edible and everything.





I enclose the original recipe with a few notes and a link to the original for if anyone's interested:

Spoiler

INGREDIENTS
3 Gala apples (not peeled), diced into ¼ inch cubes (The author seems to not have noticed that apples are not universal in size, especially if homegrown - basically putting in enough such that there was an even coating of sugar over all of them seemed to work - JB)
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
½ cup canola oil (vegetable oil of any sort will do - JB)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Add the cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl.
As you are dicing the apples, toss them in the bowl with the cinnamon and sugar to coat them and prevent browning. (For both this and the next one, "mix with a spoon" is more an appropriate verb than "toss" - JB)
Add the flour to the apples and toss.
Mix the oil, eggs and vanilla together and add to the apples (I do this in one large measuring cup after adding the oil so I don't dirty an additional bowl).
If you want to add in the walnuts you can do so here and give it one final mix.
Bake in a springform pan or a 9x9 baking pan for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I used a loose-bottomed cake tin. 40-45 mins was a massive underestimate, it'll probably take over an hour)

The original recipe is here: http://dinnerthendessert.com/armenian-apple-chunk-cake/

[Glaurung]

Thanks for the recipe - the result looks delicious enough that I am tempted to try it myself (optimistic, given my complete lack of experience in baking cakes).

The only thing I would note is that the recipe uses American quantities and units (e.g. 'cups', and Fahrenheit assumed for the oven temperature). It would be good to have conversions for UK/metric, and I'll see if I can do that. Do you know what weight of apples you used? Also, what type of sugar, and how much / what size of cup?

[Jubal]

I used a cup as being a 2/3 to 3/4 full mug, of a regular tea-mug sort. I've no idea what the weight of apples was - I think "keep going until the sugar is fairly evenly distributed as a coating that actually sticks to the apple chunks" is probably about right.

[Pentagathus]

Damn those apples look tasty. Also cake.

[Jubal]

Making one of these with raisins in instead of walnuts today

[Pentagathus]

Eww

[comrade_general]

An improvement imho.

[Pentagathus]

No.

[comrade_general]

Oh yes.

[Pentagathus]

Alright then.

[Jubal]

Was going to have walnuts, I should add, but also made a honey & walnut thing. Which has stuck to the plate it's kept on and is hellishly difficult to get off.

[Glaurung]

That description gave me an immediate mental image of a glutinous thing on the plate, speaking in a small, unpleasant voice somewhere between a croak and a hiss, "My plate, my home. Not leaving!"

On a more practical note, try warming the plate, maybe with hot water - that should reduce the viscosity of the honey mixture.

This might also explain why baklava has come to exist: even if the honey doesn't want to let go, the pastry provides a natural fracture zone.

[Jubal]

I think it's also just that the honey wasn't reduced enough - it should be harder such that it chips/sets hard rather than being slightly gloopy still and sticking so much. I'll take a picture of the walnut thing tomorrow - I've still not eaten it, but should really get round to doing so.

[comrade_general]

That's.... what she said?

[Jubal]

I mean, if she was trying the same recipe then that's entirely plausible I guess.