Apple Walnut Cake

I’ve spent a lot of time lately filtering my complaints about life through the lens of so-called ‘first-world problems.’ You know? A first-world problem, for those of you who aren’t up on the trend, is a problem that would only occur to someone living in the affluence and comfort of first-world countries.

 

For example, spilling wet coffee grounds all over the floor and the kitchen and into the open dishwasher is a problem, until you put it into the perspective of ‘I have a floor…and a roof…and coffee…and a dishwasher.’

And an owl mug, by the way. How bad can life be?

I’m also dipping my toes into the local blogging community and have been stricken by shyness like never before, and that’s a first-world problem if I’ve ever heard of one. After all, I sit around worrying if my tweets are dumb while eating goldfish crackers, as opposed to…oh, I don’t know. Bearing eight million children. Engaging in back-breaking labor. Living in a world where there are no goldfish crackers. 

Truth be told, most of my ‘problems’ are pretty dumb.

Besides. Peeling and chopping three pounds of apples gives a girl a lot of time to ponder and sip coffee and decide that things are probably going to be okay.

This cake is adapted from my thea* Chrysanthi’s recipe, and represents my first foray into blogging my maternal family’s wealth of food history. Most of it is Greek food with names that have too many vowels and therefore sound more complicated than they are, but this apple cake is as simple and straightforward as it gets.

I’ve followed Thea Chrysanthi’s recipe exactly in the past, and it makes a fantastic moist, tart-sweet cake that does double duty as breakfast or dessert. This time, though, I altered the recipe a little to include walnuts, wheat flour and less oil, and the adapted recipe is what I’m sharing with you. 

The lovely blushing apples pictured above are the Pink Lady variety, which are my favorite both for eating and for cooking. Most apples will suit this recipe fine, but avoid Granny Smith or Red Delicious, which don’t fare well in this application.  

Baking is great for beating out grouchy, sad, and disillusioned…but most of all, it’s best for conquering hungry. Check after the jump for the recipe!

Biscuits for two, and Sparky's new trick

Monday things that make me happy: 

1. Alberta. Sunshine in the winter.

 2. This dang cat, brother to my princesses.

3. Cats on fence posts. Also this dang cat, the other brother to my princesses.

If my princesses don’t stop meowing at pigeons at 7AM they’re going to be demoted to duchesses, though.

4. These candies from Planet Organic and their ridiculous rhizome-man logo. Actually, rhizomes in general. Like ginger. And hops! Not poison oak, though. Sorry, poison oak.

Monday things that make me unhappy:

How the hell did my flour jar get so empty?!

Okay. Maybe I have some idea. 

Cinnamon Swirl Bread + Cinnaswirl French Toast

Hey. Guess what? It’s the weekend! 

That’s really good news for you, because that means you’re going to have plenty of time to make cinnamon swirl bread without it interfering with your busy weekday schedule. 

I mean, yeah, I guess you could choose not to make this bread. . . but let’s be serious. Why would you do that? If you’re a novice bread baker and you’re afraid, don’t be. 

 

 As far as breads go, this one is pretty forgiving, and we’ve all got to start somewhere, okay? Plus, the result is very impressive. 

“But Miss Maillard!” you say, “What am I going to do with a whole loaf of cinnamon swirl bread?”

Well, you’re going to eat it. Plain, or toasted, or spread with butter. . . Or any combination of the above, okay? You’ve got options. Then you’re going to feed it to people who you love, and be prepared for them to sing your praises. Probably with their mouths full. 

Because this bread is homemade without any of the preservatives of store-bought bread, it’ll start to lose its freshness pretty quick – like, after only two or three days, tops. Now, it’s pretty unlikely that there will be any of this bread left after a couple days, but if there is, not to worry. 

Slightly-stale slices of cinnamon swirl bread are perfect for cinnamon swirl French toast. . . so I won’t even blame you if you hide a couple slices of bread from your family so you, too, can experience this start to your morning.

Breakfast on the weekend is an opportunity to break away from the weekday staples of oatmeal and cereal. Let’s get fancy. 

Slivered almonds? Maple syrup? A little powdered sugar? How can you not have a good day after a breakfast like this? Are you convinced yet? 

Well. . . how about now?

This tastes like heaven. The bread is toasty-crisp on the outside and warm and silky on the inside, and the merger of cinnamon and maple syrup is wholesome and comforting. You don’t need the fancy almonds or anything to make this delicious, but if you do happen to have some almonds, walnuts or pecans on hand. . . go ahead and give them a rough chop and sprinkle them over top, for a little extra crunch. 

As a sidenote, if you’re cooking breakfast for a man, don’t try to keep him from this plate of food while you’re setting it up next to the window to photograph it. I mean, unless you don’t mind drool stains all over your shoulder. 

Go ahead and make this for breakfast this weekend. Sit down and have a cup of coffee, read the paper (or your favorite blogs), enjoy a moment of peace. And if you’re kind enough to share with your significant other, parent, child or mailman? Prepare for an ego boost. . .if they can stop eating long enough to say anything. 

Check after the jump for the recipes both for the bread and for the French toast!

Banana walnut pancakes for breakfast

So. . . let’s say that you and your boyfriend had a fight last night.

Wait, no, that’s not fair to you. You’re a lover, not a fighter, right? Right. So. . . let’s say that somebody had a fight with her boyfriend the other night. Hypothetically. Nobody you know, don’t worry.

All I’m saying is, if hypothetically somebody did have a fight with her boyfriend, then making these pancakes the next morning would be an excellent way to apologize. Stirring pancake batter is way easier than saying ‘I’m sorry,’ isn’t it?

Even if you didn’t have a fight, even if you don’t have a boyfriend, you should still make these pancakes. As far as breakfast goes, this one is full of crunchy, toasted bits of walnuts surrounded by fluffy pancake. And that pancake? Super tender from the addition of ripe mashed banana. It’s like a banana muffin melted into a pan and got all golden brown, and that’s good for you, because this is the only way you can pour pure maple syrup all over a banana muffin without getting some weird looks. . . even in Canada.

Oh. . . and did I mention they’re made with whole wheat flour?  Of course. So you can dig into this nutty, protein-packed goodness with the sense that you’re getting a nutritious start to your day. It totally cancels out the butter you’re going to put on these puppies. . . probably.

 

I love the Maillard reaction, don’t you?

And that fight someone might have had hypothetically with her theoretical boyfriend? Well, I haven’t met a man yet who can be mad at you while you’re handing him piping hot coffee and a plate of homemade breakfast.  Make these next weekend, you’ll see what I mean.

Check after the jump for the recipe and tips on making fluffy pancakes every time.