Guilt-Free Cinnamon Apple Cake

This is one of the oldest twimii recipes that I still make a lot.
I first called this Apple Banana Cake but you don’t actually taste the banana it’s just used for the fat and sugar element in the cake batter so I ended up calling it the Apple Cinnamon Cake and now I just decided Cinnamon Apple Cake sounds better. So that’s what it’s called now.
I came up with my banana apple cake while I was on a self-imposed detox. I couldn’t have any refined sugar or wheat or dairy – the usual suspects. I was looking for some kind of sweet treat and I wondered if I could make some sort of cake using ground almonds for the flour and bananas for the fat and sugar. This is the easiest thing in the world to make – a child could make it very easily. And if you want to make a vegan version it’s still quite good without the egg.
OK that last sentence is not really correct. I did make vegan versions of it but at times that I was doing detoxes and as the sweetness of this was exactly what I was craving then I didn’t really notice how awful the texture is without the egg. It doesn’t really work and it takes ages to bake. If you are looking for a vegan baked-fruit dish that is really simple and contains no refined sugar then grease an oven dish with some sunflower or coconut oil, add some plums and apricots or peaches or a mixture of fruits like that, and top with a mix of mashed banana and unsweetened desiccated coconut. Just make sure that fruit you’re using is properly sweet. When you bake fruit normally with sugar you usually want them ever so slightly under-ripe – for this they must be sweet.

It may not look the best, but personally I love this. It’s full of protein, minerals and good fat. And it’s one of those comfortingly stodgy kind of treats – though not overly sweet.
This tastes great when you’re following a diet that doesn’t include much or any refined sugar. Really I love this when I’m doing that. But if I want a healthy treat and I have been eating normally – which unfortunately includes way too much sugar – then the vegan soft fruit cookies are what I make. Raisins or sultanas contain a lot more sugar than fresh fruit – so that’s also something you could add to the cake batter here if you want to make it sweeter but you don’t want to add refined sugar.
I have been known to add some maple syrup over it too – which is good but kind of defeats the whole purpose of the thing.

Ingredients
- 4 well-ripe bananas
- 1 large egg
- 100g ground almonds
- 2 Braeburn apples or some another variety which is firm, sweet and slightly tart
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Turn the oven on to 140 C. Grease a 9" oven dish or cake tin with a little sunflower oil.
- Mash the bananas on a plate with a fork till they are just a gooey mess.
- In a deep bowl whisk together the mashed bananas, ground almonds, one and a half teaspoons of cinnamon and the egg.
- Core and slice the apples. _It's usually a good idea to peel the apples as it seems to make them softer but it's up to you.
- Put the apple slice in the greased tin/dish. Sprinkle over the half teaspoon of cinnamon. Spoon in the cake mixture and smooth it over the apple till it's all covered.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour.
- Take out and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes. _You won't taste the sweetness so much if it's too hot. So be patient and _ enjoy!

