Welcome, autumn. The nights are officially longer than the days now in the northern hemisphere. It’s getting cooler and the time is right for warming foods. It’s a season when many of the most versatile and delicious fruit and vegetables come into season. Like pumpkins and apples. Or Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. Or chestnuts…… yum, yum, yum!

By the way, do you know the difference between fruit and vegetables? What makes a fruit a fruit and when is a vegetable a vegetable? It’s not the sweet or savory taste that defines it. Neither will the fruit and vegetable section in your supermarket put you in the right direction!!
From a botanical point of view, a vegetable is the root, stem or leaf of a plant. Think of spinach, carrots, potatoes.  Fruits bear seeds, e.g. apples cherries, grapes. But also cucumber, avocado, zucchini. All nuts are fruit too. Interesting, isn’t it? Something that you never really spend much thought on, but nevertheless good to know.
Anyway, as the weather in Dubai is not very autumny yet ( like it would be in North America or Europe), I prefer the light and fresh autumn fruits. These days, I simply cannot resist apples. They make great cakes. Full stop. Like this Apple Cranberry Cake. It’s great for breakfast, for tea or a slice as a snack on the go.
Once again, I used palm sugar which is my latest discovery of alternative natural sweeteners. I’ll continue advertising it here on my blog as its health benefits are amazing: it is a unrefined whole sugar that contains lots of minerals and vitamins. It consists mainly of sucrose. It’s a good source of magnesium, iron, manganese, selenium and potassium. Therefore it helps maintaining low blood pressure, it helps relieve muscles tensions,  asthma, and migraine. It has got a low Glycemic Index of about 35.
Its taste is a bit like brown sugar, slightly on the caramel side. I love it and would put it into anything that needs to be sweetened!!!
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APPLE CRANBERRY CAKE
1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats
3/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup (ca. 60g) butter
1/3 cup palm sugar (or Jaggery)
1 large egg
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated apple (1 large apple)
1/2 cup cranberries
Serves 8-10

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Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a loaf pan or line with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine oats and palm sugar. Pour over with boiling water. Slice the butter and place on top of the oat sugar water mixture. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, beat the egg lightly. Stir  beaten egg  into the oat mixture and until well combined and butter is fully melted. Combine wet with dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the cranberries and the apple.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan. Cut into slices to serve.

6 Comments

  1. That’s one beautiful sounding and deliciously dense looking cake. Perfect for these cool evenings we’ve been having!

  2. Anja,
    Yours is one of the best food blogs out there – consistently healthy & tasty recipes. Great work!
    If you have the chance, would you mind telling me what widget you use or how you’ve embedded flags and google translate for your blog? It’s a great idea, and I’d like to do the same.
    All the best,
    -Daphne

  4. I have never tried palm sugar-sounds great for flavor and nutrition too! Your apple cranberry cake looks like something I would adore. xo

  5. what a beautiful fall-inspired cake! I can’t wait to bust this one out!

  6. This is one of those classic recipes that seems so much better. Why have a slice of banana bread when you can have one of orange cranberry walnut bread. Looks delicious!

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