Right, so the other day, I found myself staring at a mountain of apples. Seriously, a ridiculous amount. My neighbor’s tree went a bit wild this year, and I was the lucky recipient of a huge box. Apple pie? Done it. Apple crumble? Made loads. I needed something… different.
And then it hit me. A crazy thought, really. Chocolate cake. But like, mostly apples. Could that even work? My brain said, “Probably not, mate,” but my gut, or maybe just a craving for chocolate, said, “Why not give it a go?” The worst that could happen was a weird, sweet apple-chocolate mush, right? I’ve made worse things, trust me.
Getting Started: The Apple Apocalypse
So, I grabbed a peeler and got to work. Peeling, coring, and then grating. So. Many. Apples. My arm was aching by the end of it. I must have had a good few pounds of grated apple sitting there. It looked like a lot, almost too much. I did squeeze out some of the juice, figured it might get too watery otherwise. Just pressed it with my hands, nothing fancy.
Next up, the chocolate element. I rummaged through the pantry and found a big tub of cocoa powder. How much to use? No idea. I just started spooning it in until the apple mixture looked properly chocolatey. Maybe half a cup? Maybe more? I wasn’t measuring precisely, just going by eye. Added a pinch of salt too, because someone once told me it makes chocolate taste more chocolatey.
Binding It All Together (Hopefully)
Now, this apple-cocoa concoction needed to become a cake. Or something resembling one. I cracked in a couple of eggs. Whisked them up a bit first, then mixed them into the apples. For sweetness, I added some brown sugar. Not too much, because the apples were already pretty sweet, but chocolate needs that balance.
The big question was flour. The whole point was to make it out of apples, but I worried it would just fall apart. So, I compromised. I added a little bit of almond flour – maybe a third of a cup? Just to give it a tiny bit of structure, you know? I didn’t want a total disaster. Stirred everything together. The “batter” looked pretty strange. Not like any cake batter I’d ever made. It was dense, very moist, and lumpy from the grated apple. Honestly, I had my doubts at this stage. It looked a bit grim.
Baking and the Moment of Truth
I greased a round cake tin, dumped the mixture in, and spread it out as evenly as I could. Then, into the oven it went. I set the temperature to what I usually use for cakes, around 180°C (that’s 350°F for you folks across the pond). And then I waited. And worried a bit.
After about 20 minutes, the kitchen started to smell amazing. A mix of warm apples and rich chocolate. That was a good sign! I peeked through the oven door. It was… rising? A little bit, anyway. It looked like it was actually setting.
I gave it a good 40-45 minutes in total. A skewer came out mostly clean, just a few moist crumbs. So, I pulled it out and let it sit on the counter. The hardest part is always waiting for things to cool down enough to try them.
The Verdict?
Well, once it was cool enough to handle, I sliced into it. It didn’t crumble into a sad mess, which was my first win! The texture was super moist, almost fudgy. Definitely not your light, airy sponge cake, but that wasn’t what I was aiming for.
- Appearance: Dark, rich, and it held its shape.
- Texture: Very dense, soft, with the little bits of apple making it interesting.
- Taste: Surprisingly good! The chocolate was definitely the star, but there was a lovely, subtle apple flavour in the background, and a nice fruitiness. It wasn’t overly sweet either, which I liked.
So, chocolate cake out of apples? Yeah, it actually worked! It’s not going to win any baking competitions for finesse, but for a spur-of-the-moment experiment using up a load of fruit, I’m calling it a success. It’s a rustic kind of cake, comforting. And you feel slightly less guilty eating it because, you know, apples. Would I make it again? Definitely. It’s a keeper for when those apple mountains appear. A tasty way to deal with a glut, that’s for sure.
