THB : Apple-Walnut Mosaic Coffee Cake

The Home Bakers (THB)'s first bake was on 3rd April 2012, it has been eight months and 11 bakes since then. Our 12th bake today, shall be the last bake for the year 2012. THB is taking a well-deserved break in December and we shall be back again continuing on with the book that we are currently baking from, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas, in January 2013.  December will be a busy month full of fun festivities and holidays. It's time to be with family and loved ones! And of course, the Christmas shopping! (I'm hoping that Santa will take a peek at my Wishlist over at Amazon, hahaha!) A very Big Thank You to all the lovely members of THB for the support and wonderful bakes these past 8 months where we have completed 12 recipes from the book! That's 48 more to go! We sure had fun, didn't we, ladies? More to come in 2013! 

For our 12th bake today, this delightful Apple-Walnut Mosaic Coffee Cake was chosen by the lovely Michelle from Piece of Cake. Michelle has proven to be a talented baker and cook, and one very organized baker! Drop by Piece of Cake, make a new friend if you have not met her already! 

The cake was originally meant to be baked in a tube pan. Upon receiving tips from Mich who has baked this cake weeks in advance (told you she is organized!), that the cake is very crumbly and advise to bake this in cupcake form. So I did. And with a few changes too. I noticed that the amount of apples is way too much, and Mich did confirmed that as well, so I have cut down the amount of apples drastically! I made half a recipe which calls for 3 cups of chopped apples, which I have reduced to 1 cup only, finely chopped. Other changes I've made is to replace 1/2 cup of the whole-wheat flour to all-purpose flour as I wanted a lighter cake since there are so many ingredients in this bake. I used 1/4 cup of walnuts and reduce the brown sugar to a scant 1/2 cup, and 1/3 cup of dried cranberries. 

Even with the reduction in the quantity of ingredients, they do seem quite a lot for the batter that seems so little! This amount yields exactly 6 standard-size cupcakes. It smells incredibly nice while baking, and bakes up perfectly. 

The cake is moist, not-too-sweet and very tasty.

I love the dried cranberries that gives a lovely tangy bite to the moist cake. The funny thing when I first bite into this cake, it tastes like I'm eating banana cake! And I am not the only one, my daughter thought that I had added in mashed bananas. Much later in the evening, my son ate one, and I asked him does he know what cake I've made, he answered me "Banana Cupcake".  Hahaha! Now where do this "banana" come from? :)

Please do visit Mich from Piece of Cake for the full recipe. To view the other members bake on this cake,  drop by The Home Bakers (THB).

THB is currently baking from Coffee Cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas, if you would like to join in and be a member of THB, please email me at kitchenflavours@yahoo.com