Call me old-fashioned but I love the feeling of satisfaction one gets from making things yourself. So you can imagine my delight when my husband decided to harvest apples from our own backyard. We’ve had two old apple trees since we moved into our house some 15 years ago. Not sure what variety they are. The local birds and squirrels have always been happy to make short work of them. Not this time though, we beat them to it.

According to my better half — this is as organic as it gets although I figured they’d be wormy from neglect and well past their prime. Much to my surprise, all eleven of the apples harvested were actually quite fine and tasty, too. Have apples? Make cake.

Apple Almond Cake

Ingredients

Beat together

2 cups                   brown sugar

1 cup                     coconut oil

2 tbsp                   ground flaxseed + 6 tbsp water (or 2 eggs)

2 tsp                      vanilla

Mix together

1 ¾ cup                 whole wheat flour

¼ cup                   almond flour

2 tsp                      baking soda

2 tsp                      cinnamon

½ tsp                     fresh ground nutmeg

Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture until well combined. Stir in

4 cups                   apples (peeled, cored and chopped)

¼ cup                    sliced almonds

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare oblong baking pan. Beat sugar, coconut oil, flax eggs and vanilla until combined. Mix dry ingredients then add to sugar mixture. Stir in apples and almonds. Smooth into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven until golden, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan about 10 mins. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.