3rd November 2013

It’s Apple Time with Waitrose – Do your children know where their food comes from?

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Recently I was asked to join in with Waitrose and promote their campaign to educate children about where their food comes from and how to grow their own. There are thousands of children in the Uk who do not necessarily know that apples grow on trees both in orchards and gardens as well as hedgrows. 2013 has been an outstanding year for most fruit and especially apples.

Many schools are putting gardening on the curriculum and where possible putting the vegetables grown by the children on the menu of the school dinners. Now its time to bring that initiative home and get the children gardening in their own back yard. You don’t need masses of spare space as they can grow some vegetables quite successfully in pots and planters.

One of the aims for my allotment is to have a small piece of ground set aside for the grandchildren to plant whatever they want and to look after it when they visit.

Waitrose kindly sent me an apple recipe to make sticky toffee apples and the ingredients to do this. They also sent a set of children’s gardening tools to encourage the little ones to help in the garden and on the allotment.

I decided to postpone the making of the sticky toffee apples and instead make an apple cinnamon cake. I want to make the candy recipe one when the grandchildren visit in a few weeks time.

My apple cake is really easy to make and a great way to get apples into the family. It’s also a good cake to get the children helping with. They love to eat what they have made or helped to make.

The ingredients are simple and there are basically just the three stages before putting it into the loaf pan and then the oven.

Apple Cinnamon Tea Loaf

Mix

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Set aside

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin and preheat the oven to 180o

Mix

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup softened butter
Cream till light and fluffy

Add 2 eggs – one at a time and beat in well

Add 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Taylor & Colledge from Papua New Guinea)

Next fold the dry ingredients
1 1/2cups Self Raising Flour
1 3/4teaspoon baking powder plus
1/3 cup milk into the butter egg mixture and then add the milk

Peel and chop one large apple or two small ones and keep to one side.

Pour half the batter into the prepared loaf pan

Sprinkle half the apples on top

Then sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar.

Pour the remaining batter into the loaf pan

Sprinkle the remaining apples
Then sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar

With a sharp knife point gently swirl the mixture
Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Check the middle to see if it is cooked.

When cooled slice and enjoy!

I was also sent an apple tree to plant in my garden or on the allotment and it can be planted straight into the soil or in a large pot. I have always wanted an apple tree and am mega excited with this one. It will be planted initially in a large pot but next time the grandchildren are visiting we will plant it together (they can use the little garden tools).

I want them to watch the apples as they grow, see the blossom then the little apples and see them get bigger and bigger until they can pick the fruit for themselves.

Thanks to Waitrose for the apples and the ingredients to make the cake and also for the apple tree. I did not receive any payment to write this post and all opinions and recipes are my own.