Menu for Hope 6 and Cranberry Apple Spice Cake

There’s only 9 days left on Menu for Hope people!! The great news is that, as of this morning, it’s already raised over $12,000. But I’m hoping that we can do WAY better than that! Spread the word! Shout it from the roof tops! Blog! Tweet! Facebook it! Whatever you do, make sure people know about it.

And hey, if you’re not a baked goods fan (although I do think that makes you certifiable) there’s a whole bunch of other stuff you can bid on!! We’re thinking of spending a few days in Paris for our honeymoon, before heading to a little chateaux somewhere with yummy food and vineyard tours so here’s a few of the items I’m going to bid on…


EU02 – Tour of France wine – An afternoon of tasting French wines? Yes please!
EU03 – Wine and cheese lunch - my two FAVORITE things! Mmmm, French cheese…
EU05 – Cooking Class in Paris – oh yes. That sounds INCREDIBLE!
EU19 – Personalised one-day Paris Itinerary. Ooo, I really want to win this one.
EU31 – Market Tour and Cooking Class in Burgundy – ok, so I’m actually DESPERATE to win this one!
EU34 – Private Chocolate Tour and Tasting in Rococo Chocolate in London. I know, it’s not France, but this chocolate is A-MAZ-ING.

But then there’s this one, this one, this one and this one too! Argh, I’m so torn! I have no idea how I’m going to narrow it down. Oh well – maybe I’ll just have to put a ticket on each. It is for charity, after all...

So basically, if my entry doesn’t float your boat, PLEASE don’t let that stop you from helping to support this fantastic cause. It’s only about £6.20 (US$10) for a ticket - that's the price of a cocktail in London.

There's also a great new widget to make donating even easier - just click on this link.

But to hawk my entry a little, Here’s a little something to whet your appetite. This beauty not only tastes delicious but lasts really well. Actually improves in flavour if left until the second day so will be perfect for me to post to wherever you are!

Festive but (unlike most festive treats) it’s not crazy heavy or crazy sweet. Moist, spongey and filled with tart cranberries and apples. Practically a health food! Ok, that might be stretching things a little too far, but it can’t be as bad as a mince pie.

Cranberry Apple Spice Cake

Adapted from Joy the Baker

375g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups (375ml) flavourless oil (sunflower, vegetable or similar)
3 large eggs
300g caster sugar
110g brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tbsp rum, bourbon or other spirit you have on hand. Or orange juice if you’re out of the hard stuff!
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tart apples (granny smith, bramley, something along those lines) peeled, cored and cut into little cubes – about 1/4 “
1 cup (probably about 125g) fresh cranberries, very roughly chopped. You could swap in dried fruit like raisins or apricots if you can’t get fresh cranberries.

Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C or Gas Mark 4.

For this, I used a bundt pan as, on a whim, I bought one recently. It does look super cute in a bundt pan but this could equally make 2 loaves or a 7” square tin. Whatever you choose to use, butter and flour the tin (or line with greaseproof paper) and knock the excess flour out.

Then – easy as anything – in one bowl, mix up the oil, eggs, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, alcohol and vanilla. In another, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Then fold the flour mix gently into the oil mix, until only just combined. Remember, overmixing once the flour is in there develops the gluten and leads to rubbery cakes! Yuck.

Carefully fold in the fruit before transferring the mixture to the prepared pan. Bake for about 1hr 15mins until a skewer comes out clean. Then leave in the tin to cool for 30 mins before transferring onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. As I baked mine last thing at night, I actually left it in the tin to cool with a tea towel over the top and it was absolutely fine.

Dust with a light snow of icing sugar before serving.

Rosy xx