It's Mine Now.....
Most of the ideas for recipes I’ve come up with have had their origin in existing recipes. Sometimes I see a recipe and think it sounds wonderful, but that I could make it better. Other times I think of a combination of ingredients I think will work, then search my extensive cookbook collection (and now the web) to see if anyone else has thought of
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Let's see - nuts are entirely optional. Leave them out. I happen to like the flavor combination of honey, ginger and walnuts, so I put them in, but they don't affect the texture at all.
Because the cake is spicy, the dried fruit offsets it a bit, and the Sultanas come out very moist. But if you don't like dried fruit, leave it out - all of it. No harm will be done. At most, you might want to reduce the amount of ginger to 1 1/2 tsp instead of 2.
Unbleached flour is fine. That's how it started in the first place.
Don't waste the energy to grate lemon peel. Bottled dried lemon peel works great. A quarter teaspoon of lemon extract would also work. Likewise on spices - if you don't have mace or allspice or cardamom or ground clove (a lot of people don't have my spice cabinet - not rack, entire cabinet), don't worry about it; just leave them out and add a teaspoon of cinnamon and/ or some nutmeg.
The things you can't mess with are the apple, butter, amount of sweetening, amount of flour and eggs. All else is negotiable; ask me and I'll tell you what the result of a particular modification will be.
If you want to chop the apple then cover and put it in the refrigerator to conserve spoons for another day, that's fine. Likewise you can mix the dry ingredients together and put them away. You can beat the butter, sugar, honey and eggs together and refrigerate them; just beat them light again when you take them out. The "finish and bake" point is once the baking powder, baking soda and flour are mixed with the wet ingredients. At that point the chemical reaction that causes leavening will start, and you have to finish mixing it and bake it.
What you will end up with will be something very like a fresh apple honey gingerbread. It freezes very well, and tastes as good frozen as warm.
I hope it works well for you.
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the only spice i am missing is mace [not a fan of mace].
and the doing it over a couple days is a point WELL taken.
hrmmm... see, i want to make it for my sister's BDay. *she* LOVES sultanas [i quite like them, just alone] i wonder if i could make half/half? like, do everthing else, pour half the batter in half the pan [with a divider] then add sultanas to other half... bet that would work. and it would reduce the cooking time by a couple of minutes, but that's not a big deal...
hrm. HRM.
sorry for the -explosion- of questions, and thank you!!!!!!
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If you have or have access to small (6" X 4", I think) loaf pans, you can divide it that way. I can usually find disposable ones, since people use them for gift-giving, but I also have a pair of my own for making half-batches. Then you could put half the batter in one, stir sultanas into the other half, and put it in the second pan. I also have 6" round cake pans, which make half a standard layer; I bought them in the craft department at Wal-Mart, among the bridal supplies.
I'd turn the oven down 25 degrees for either of those options, to give yourself a little wiggle-room in guessing the timing.
Do try a bite with the sultanas. Blended into the cake like that, they don't taste "baked".
And, well, I understand spoons entirely too well. My near-sister has Sjogren's.
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your recomendations have been noted; i, too, have a 6" round cake pan, and that seems to be the best idea.
[but even if the sultanas taste great, i'd have to seperate - i can't remember if it's my dad or my step-mom whose allergic, but ONE of them is :) ]
and thank you! again for even MOAR advice :) lucky me!!!
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