The hard-to-mess-up apple cake

I was heartbroken.  I shouldn't have made this cake.  My baby sourdough was quietly proofing in the bowl and I got a bit bored. My friend was visiting in a few hours so I thought I might as well bake something else whilst I wait for my bread and then just pop my baby in the oven when it would.be.perfect.  It was my 4th try with my sourdough, I was determined to make.it.perfect.

The cake took longer than expected in the oven.  I f*cking hate my oven. I know everyone says you need to get to know your oven as every oven is different and I've gotten to know mine for the past two years and i f*cking hate it.  It's a miserable piece of machinery that never gets hot enough and I have to extend the cooking time by at least 20 minutes for anything.  If you stand by the oven you feel the heat coming out. It's great for the winter but I still f*cking hate my oven.

So after the cake was done, I put in my bread.  It was looking so promising, with it gradually rising taller and taller and it gaining the most beautiful golden tinge and I kept staring into my oven with a big smile on my face and then it stopped.  My oven broke down.  My bread needed just twenty more minutes, but I was left with a pale raw dough.

Maybe if I hadn't made this cake, my oven would've had only one task to do and my sourdough would've been perfect. 

Maybe sourdough and I are not meant to be as I've yet to made a truly satisfactory one.  This cake however, is impossible to mess up.  Near impossible, I don't want to raise your hopes and have it crash down if you burn this cake.

But feel free to change up the flour, the nuts, the spices, the candied fruit.  Just go for it.  Read the recipe and if your oven isn't miserably incompetent like mine then you should be fine.   And it's delicious. Promise.  It's moist, it's comforting, it's earth and just the thing you need when you're crying over your bread.

Recipe adapted from Food52
Makes one massive cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups rye flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup candied ginger, roughly chopped
3 cups peeled, cored and shredded apples
1 cup almonds, chopped

Method
Preheat oven to 180C.  Butter and flour a 9" ring pan. 

Beat the oil and the sugar together for about 5 minute and then add the eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, spices and baking soda.  Stir into the butter and fold in the remaining ingredients. 

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hr 15min to 1 hour 30 min, or until a toothpick/knife inserted into the center comes out clean.