This cake is fantastic topped with ice cream or softly whipped cream for a home-y dessert and is also quite comfortable next to a cup of coffee in the morning (the apples and walnuts make it a perfectly legitimate breakfast choice).

Speaking of apples, this recipe uses a LOT of them. When you are making this cake, you will feel like there has been a mistake and you have added too many. Don’t worry, everything will work out in the end.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f
2. Butter or grease an 8 x 13 or two 8 x 8 inch baking pans, for extra safety you can also line the bottoms with parchment
3. In a very large bowl, combine flour (3 cups), baking soda (1 tsp), sugar (1 1/2 cups), salt (1/2 tsp), cinnamon (1 tsp), cloves (1/2 tsp) and nutmeg (1/2 tsp) and stir together
4. In a separate bowl, combine eggs (4), vegetable oil (1 cup), molasses (1 tbsp) and vanilla (1 tsp) and whisk to combine
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together
6. Add the apples (5 chopped apples) and walnuts (1 cup) and stir together
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and back for 35 – 40 minutes – you will know that this is done by inserting a toothpick into the centre of the cake – if it comes out clean or with a few crumbs sticking to it the cake is done, if it comes out wet with batter more time is needed

Notes:

• The apples in this cake put out a lot of moisture, so if you are unsure about whether it is completely baked, feel free to give it a couple more minutes in the oven
• Warning – this cake smells amazing. Seriously, your house will smell a little too good. If you don’t close your windows, be prepared for visitors stopping by with only the flimsiest of pretexts. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!