Blushing apples on apple day!

Zorra at 1x umrühren bitte invited us to take part in "Apple Day". Aye Zorra, are you sure an apple a day keeps the doctor away?

I discovered I don't use them a lot in cooking other than the occasional apple cake or our Dutch "appeltaart". I will use the occasional shriveled ones in apple-sauce and some as a filler or main star in preserves. I think my kids, like the Swiss, eat their fair share of the 18 kgs per head per annum and they prefer to eat them fresh. Since we have this neat little device even their friends pick apples over candy (at least sometimes..).

So, yesterday when it suddenly occurred to me that submission day was today I made a carrot apple cake. Simple, straightforward, and the fragrance in the house as an added bonus. (Edit: you can still participate, submission date 30th September!).

Recipe Apple-carrot cake:
250 gr ap flour
2 ts baking powder
1 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
1 ts cinnamom

3 tbs poppy seeds
200 gr light brown sugar
3 eggs
zest 1 orange
200 gr carrot, grated
115 gr butter, melted and cooled
100 gr apple, cored, peeled, cubed
75 gr nuts (used crushed hazelnuts)
optional: a small hand dried cranberries

almond slivers to garnish

Make a batter muffin-style: Mix and sift dry ingredients, mix and cream wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix dry and wet, make sure you don't overmix. This is btw an excellent muffin batter, this time I used an 24 cm round spring form.

Line bottom of spring form and oil the sides, spoon batter in form and bake for 30-40 minutes in a preheated oven (175C). For muffins bake at 175C for +/- 20 minutes. Drizzle with glaze. Enjoy!