We used to make an apple cake pretty often when I lived in Italy, so I've been trying to recreate the recipe with some help from DuckDuckGo. Even easier to make that a carrot cake.

• 3–4 apples.
• 3 eggs.
• 140g castor sugar.
• 120ml olive oil.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 200g self-raising flour.
• Small pinch of salt.

1. Preheat oven to 180℃.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together, till lightened.
3. Add oil and vanilla.
4. Slowly mix in flour, then salt and any other spices you want.
5. Dice half the apples and add.
6. Pour into lined cake tin.
7. Slice (maybe 3–4mm) the rest of the apple, and place on top.
8. Bake until ready, maybe 40 minutes.

• My oven's got its own ideas about things, so I set it to 200℃, and cook for an hour.
• Lots of recipes online blend the ingredients together, but I haven't tried that.
• In case you don't know: there are certain apples that are good for cooking, generally ones that are a bit sour like Granny Smith.
• In Italy you can by little packets of lievito, and the dessert ones have vanilla in them.
• Wholemeal flour could be nice, maybe half-half.
• Lots of recipes online top the cake with icing sugar, but that seems like overkill to me.
• Originally I used a less complex method: dry stuff, eggs, oil, apples…
• Cinnamon's an obvious spice to try adding. I've tried lemon myrtle and wattle seed, and that was a nice combo.