Apologies for having been so quiet for so long!

The main reason was that I was traveling in North America last month.
The good thing about this is that my North American travels always inspire me to try out new receipes and one of these is this one…

I noticed that for some reasons Americans have a variety of ‘coffee cakes’ which don’t actually have any coffee in them. At first I found it a little confusing but now I assume they call them coffee cakes as they are best with a cup of coffee since they are usually on the drier side of cake creations.

This one here is pretty much an apple crumble cake but I based it on an American ‘Apple Coffee Cake’ receipe. The apple pieces make sure the cake is not too dry – but have a cup of coffee with it anyway!

For a cake tin of around 20 x 20 cms (which would be around 8 x 8 inches) you will need:

• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 3/4 cups caster sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• 3/4 cup chopped up cooking apples (or other not-too-sweet apples, such as Bramley apples)

 And for the cake topping:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit/gas mark 4 /190 degrees celsius.

Start with the cake topping by mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl until combined, set aside while you get on with the cake.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in one bowl so the raising agent gets combined with the flour.

In another, bigger bow, mix the oil, eggs, vanilla and milk together with a balloon whisk. Once they are combined add the dry ingredients from the other bowl along with the pieces of apple and mix everything together briefly with the balloon whisk or even just a big fork but don’t over-mix.

Grease your cake tin and pour the cake mixture into it. Spread the topping evenly over the cake and lightly press it down with a wooden spoon, so some of it goes almost half way into the batter while some of it stays on top.

Bake for around 25 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm, or cold – it’s still tasty the next day too!