Chocolate Apple Cake

I love this photo of my Madison, his such a poser and knows when to be cute to melt my heart! (Check out the head tilt and crossed paws, lol).

The weather here has been somewhat nicer with sunny intervals and warmer days, looks like spring has arrived and summer is a short distance away (can't wait for BBQ's, lunching and dining al fresco in my garden). So in celebration of spring I decided to bake up a cake and decorate it with pastel coloured flowers. This Chocolate and Apple Cake recipe was kindly passed on to me by a lady who owned her own bakery, and it was a favourite with the local school girls, so much so that on some days they had to bake over 5 of these cakes to keep up with the popular demands. I can totally see why this cake would have been such a hit, my son and his friends all love it and so does the hubby. The sponge is beautifully moist due to the grated apple and the buttercream icing is heavenly. A "must bake" for any true chocoholic!

Chocolate Apple Cake

Ingredients

250g (9oz) Plain Flour

25g (1oz ) Cocoa

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Bicarbonate of soda

100g ( 4oz ) Butter

250g ( 9oz ) Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

A few drops of Vanilla Extract

175 ml. (6fl oz) Milk

2 Cooking Apples or Eating Apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped or grated

Icing
450g (1lb ) Icing sugar, sifted

25g ( 1oz ) Cocoa

50g ( 2oz ) Butter, softened

90ml. ( 3fl oz ) Milk

Preheat oven to 180/350F/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm ( 8 in ) square cake tin.Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb. Put the sugar and butter into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Whisk in the flour mixture and lastly add the chopped apples and milk. Spoon into tin and bake for 1 hour or till cooked..When cake is cold, make icing by beating all ingredients together, spread over cake and make a swirly pattern and pop on some chocolate drops.

Serves: 12