Coffee and Apple Cake

Yes, that's my doona/duvet in the photo. I was sitting on my bed, just about plough into my piece of cake, the last piece of cake, when I realised I hadn't taken any photos of my Coffee and Apple Cake. You see, I like cake best when it's fresh out of the oven, still warm. So I bake when people are already over. Then the cake (or pudding, or cookies, or whatever) gets eaten straight away. So there's only photos if something is leftover the next day, and only if I can remember to take the photo before sticking that something in my gob.

This cake is a total crowd pleaser (unless it comes out of the oven looking like this!). I have one friend who, when my name and baking are mentioned together, will tell anyone in ear shot about this cake, even though I've made it for her only maybe three times in the ten years that I've known her. She even expressed more desire for it than a Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake! I think that's going a little far, but the Coffee and Apple Cake is the perfect afternoon cake. It's a very moist cake, slightly crumbly and best eaten with a fork. The flavours of the brown sugar, coffee, apple, and cinnamon work so perfectly together. Everyone needs a piece of this cake.

I had a pretty extensive look online for the same or similar recipes, and I was surprised that I came up empty. The recipe is originally from a Woman's Weekly cake book - hardly an obscure source. So here it is, with the small changes made by my mum and I over the years.


Coffee and Apple Cake with Caramel Icing

1/2 cup sultanas
1 tbs instant coffee
1/2 cup boiling water
90g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 large apple, grated

Line a 22cm square cake tin with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celcius.

Combine the sultanas, coffee, and boiling water in a bowl, cool to room temperature.

Cream butter, vanilla essence, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, beat in egg; beat until combined. Stir in half the sifted flour, cinnamon, and bi-carb soda along with half the coffee and sultana mixture, then stir in the rest of the flour and sultana mixtures. Stir in grated apple and walnuts.

Spread batter into cake tin and bake for 25-30 min.

Caramel Icing
2 tbs brown sugar
30g butter
1 tbs milk
1 cup icing sugar

Combine brown sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan, stirring constantly over heat without boiling, until smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in sifted icing sugar.

Note: The coffee flavour in the cake is pretty subtle, so if you really like coffee feel free to make the 1/2 cup of liquid as strong as you can, and/or use real espresso. Also, I sometimes make coffee flavoured icing instead of caramel, to increase the coffee flavour.

Black Beans

A few weeks ago I was soaking some black beans (turtle beans) to make a salad, and I wondered if the beans would sprout. I had a look and couldn't find any pictures of the growth habit, but someone on a gardening forum said that they grow into bushes rather than climbing, which suits me just fine because I already have snow peas and sweet peas on my limited fence space.


Just over a week ago I put eight seeds in a container, and five have already sprouted!


I'm not sure how they'll go. It's towards the end of general bean planting time here in Sydney, so hopefully it suits them. I won't be too upset if they fail though. Eight beans out of a one kilo bag of beans - it was definitely worth a try. They're such pretty looking seedlings too.

Coconut and Passionfruit Two Ways

I wanted Coconut & Passionfruit Self-Saucing Pudding.

But, I only wrote down the ingredients and didn't read the instructions.

I got Coconut Cake With Passionfruit Custard Top.


It was actually really nice. The cake was really dense, but the passionfruit custard was great. I'll make the effort to read the instructions next time though, because as nice as it was, I wanted self-saucing pudding and it didn't scratch the itch.

Rose & Pinenut Rice Krispie Cups

My American flatmate had a craving for Rice Krispie Treats, so I set about making them for him. I've made Australian style chocolate crackles plenty of times, but I wanted to make these the normal American way. So, I went to the Kellogg's site and got the original recipe. However, I could only find packets of mixed white and pink marshmallows. I couldn't be bothered buying two packets and separating out the colours, so I resigned myself to making pink Rice Krispie Treats. The colour got me thinking though, so after filling a square pan with 2/3 of the mix, I added a dash of rosewater and a handlful of pinenuts to the bowl and pressed the remaining mix into some oiled cupcake pans.

Et voila: Adult Rice Krispie Treats


They were delicious. The heady scent of the rosewater and the creaminess of the pinenuts took them from being a pleasantly sweet but basically uninteresting bar, to a really enjoyable 'treat'.

I thought my friend would be disappointed by the non-standard pink colour of the plain bars, and totally uninterested in the souped up version, but I was completely wrong. He didn't mind the colour at all, and it turns out he actually loves rose flavoured desserts and would have preferred the whole batch that way. I also much preferred them in the cupcake pans- it's so much easier and less messy than cutting bars.

Vanilla Slice

This was a request by a flatmate. I grew up eating vanilla slices and I always loved them, but I hadn't had one for years. They're not the best thing to eat in public because of the tendancy for the custard to squish all over the place when you take a bite. These ones were enjoyed in the privacy of our home, and with the assistance of forks.


This was definitely one of the best vanilla slices that I've had. The recipe is from Donna Hay in the Sunday Mazagine's ANZAC Day special. It called for custard powder, but I swapped it for cornflour, vanilla bean paste, and a few drops of yellow food colouring. The passionfruit icing isn't essential, but I highly recommend it.

Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake

This ugly brown and white lump is a slice of the Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake that I made for my flatmate's birthday recently. Believe me when I say that it tastes as good as it looks ugly! We were like animals, groaning as we ate and smushing cake around the plate in our haste to get more into our mouths.


Like Smitten Kitchen did, I substituted each of the different elements of the cheesecake for recipes that I already had: my own vegan brownie recipe, a New York Cheesecake recipe (minus the lemon) in Australian measurements, and I winged it with the ganache.

Soft Gingerbread

These unassuming brown balls are the tastiest gingerbread I've had in a long time. They are soft, spicey little balls of heaven. The recipe yields only a fairly small amount, so I recommend doubling the batch. I certainly will be next time.


This is my mum's Mother's Day present, and why I'll be making that double batch really soon. The whole lot fit into the container with no leftovers for me!