In my days in North America, I would make atleast one apple pie every fall. In "Forever Warm Sunny Singapore" that just doesn't feel right. I just miss the chill in the air that makes a piece of warm apple pie on your plate feel just right. I was missing the flavors of apple and cinnamon so much ...... (and also wanted to stay away from all the butter in the pie ;-) )..... so I decided to put them in a cake. The trick is to steep your apples in powdered cinnamon and sugar for a while before you add it to the cake batter. This gives the cake an intense apple pie flavor.

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 large apples or 3 medium ones, peeled and finely grated

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder

1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup raisins

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

In a bowl mix the grated apples, cinnamon and 1 tablesppon sugar. Keep this mixture aside for 1/2 hour. The sugar helps to draw more juice from the apples. This juice has an intense cinnamon flavor and it helps to keep the cake moist.

Preheat oven to 325 F or 180 C. Grease and flour a 10" bundt pan.

Lightly dust the raisins with 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Fold the flour into the batter very gently. Add the apples/cinnamon/sugar mixture with the juice and the vanilla extract. Finally fold in the raisins.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes. When it is done, the cake will be springy to the touch and a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Invert the cake onto a cooling rack after 10 minutes. Optional: dust the cake with icing sugar or a mixture of icing sugar and cinnamon powder.