Life has been a bit out of kilter over the past month and my blog has suffered – it’s not so much that I haven’t been cooking or that I have nothing to say (when have I got nothing to say?!), just that I seem to have writer’s block when I sit down at the end of the day to take a breath.

Having a three-year-old in the house should mean that I’m never out of material. If only I wrote down everything he says, I’d have more a book than a single post.

When leaving a friend’s house today and the little guy wasn’t moving, I did the old say goodbye and walk out the door trick. Trouble is that this has never worked very well for me. Master Three doesn’t care. His mate said, “she’s gone” and my boy uttered, “yay” and they continued playing. Upon returning, friend said, “I thought you’d left”.

We got home and I was told, “Mum, you’re not in my life anymore”. That’s telling me. I’m sure that won’t be the last time I hear that phrase!

My personal favourite though was when I pointed to a half-eaten apple on the lounge room floor and asked what it was. The response? “An apple core”, with him looking at me as if I was some sort of idiot. Of course it was an apple core. And, of course, he didn’t know that me asking that question meant that it shouldn’t be there and I wanted it picked up. It’s a sign of things to come – always say what you mean upfront with men.

Since I’m on the topic of apples, I’ll post another delish apple recipe. I’ve always struggled apple cakes being dry so the one served up by my friend Rebecca recently was a pleasant surprise. I had to make it immediately, and have done so several times since. It’s lovely and moist and very easy to make, especially with a Kenwood by your side. This recipe is my take on the original by Natalie Oldfield.

What you’ll need

3 eggs

180g sugar

60g butter, melted

225g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Zest of a lemon

100g raisins

4-5 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

3 Tbsp brown sugar

To make it

Heat oven to 190C. Grease and line a 20cm ring tin.

Put the eggs and sugar into the bowl of an electric beater and mix until thick (or use an electric hand beater). Beat in the butter and sifted dry ingredients.

Fold in the lemon rind, raisins and three-quarters of the apple.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and arrange the reserved apples on the top of the cake. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes – the time will depend on your oven and even the type of apples you use. You will know it is ready when the cake is coming away from the sides of the tin and a skewer comes out clean. Let sit in the tin to semi-cool before turning out.

Serve with lovely thick yoghurt. I particularly like Easiyo’s Greek yoghurt with coconut – it works beautifully with this cake.

Will last a couple of days and probably best stored in the fridge after day one, but take it out for a while before serving so it’s not fridge cold. Although storage is unlikely to be a problem as the cake will be eaten before you have a chance to worry about where to put it.