Apple Torte

I love to cook and my gorgeous parents know this well, so for Christmas they got me a Kenwood Chef stand mixer. Lack of having a stand mixer since I moved away from home has not stopped me baking, but it makes such a difference. Properly creaming butter is simple. Whipping eggs and sugar till they are "pale and creamy" is a snap. So of course, my rate of baking is increasing markedly.

Last night I decided to make a cake which had got brilliant reviews on one of the blogs I regularly read "Apples Under My Bed". She herself had discovered it on the fabulous blog "Greed Gourmand" who it transpired had found it on a third blog, "Cook Almost Anything". It was difficult not to get distracted by each wonderful blog as I undertook my quest for the recipe, but at last it was found.

The fabulous cake in question is the Apple Torte. It may not be the most visually attractive cake, but it is delicious. It is one of those recipes where you wonder if it is going to work as you assemble the ingredients. Somehow, the 6 finely sliced apples just seem too voluminous, the delicious batter not quite enough, and the addition of pine nuts unusual in a sweet thing. But it all works.

The beneficiaries of all this baking activity are my colleagues. There were very few people in today, in fact only 5 cake eaters, yet half of it had disappeared before lunch, and the rest followed in rapid succession. This recipe is a keeper.