How I Baked A Delicious Apple Cake By Mistake

It was always a joy to make scarves and gloves for my daughters and myself, but I'm on a solo travel journey and don't have time to sit around crocheting except for special occasions. Having a hobby has helped me through stressful times while improving myself, which is why it was important to find a new one after my move to London.

After giving it some thought, I decided to take up photography and baking; photography seems like an ideal hobby for a solo traveller. Baking is a pretty bold choice for me, as I already tried it and failed. The truth is, I sucked so much at baking that my daughters wouldn't eat anything I made. After becoming a mother, I thought about making homemade treats for my daughters, but I failed miserably!

When I think about it, baking isn't a hobby that someone on a weight loss journey would pick, but I'm glad I did, even though it's making it hard to stay away from homemade cakes. I'm not sure what happened after I moved to London to improve my skills, but I can now bake, and I couldn't believe it when I made my first blueberry bread. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was good enough to be praised by housemates, which boosted my confidence.

It was even better with the banana bread I made afterwards. It was so good I considered taking baking lessons, I even applied for a course, but had to change my plans. I've been thinking about retirement and what I'll do when the time comes, so baking could be a good way to keep busy and earn some money. It's the main reason I enrolled on the course, but I'm leaving London soon, and will have to do it where I'm moving.

I'm going to focus on improving myself until I take lessons from a professional, and I'm so motivated that my pantry is now full of baking ingredients. I've been trying different recipes and even came up with a couple of my own, which brings me to the topic of this post. I forgot to add an important ingredient when baking an apple cake, and it turned out to be one of those moments when you make something good by mistake.

I always like spending time in my room, but even more so now that I live in a shared house. I'm still not used to sharing a kitchen with people, and I get overwhelmed when it's crowded. Whenever I want to cook, I try to make the most of my time there by meal prepping and making meals for at least a couple of days. It saves time and money, but more importantly, I get to go in the kitchen only to get a drink, food or snacks.

So I was cooking the other day when I thought about making an apple cake while waiting for the food to be ready. I didn't want to go back later to bake. I already prepped the apples I wanted to use for the cake; I diced and marinated them in syrup and cinnamon for a couple of days. I tried this process the second time I baked an apple cake. I had some leftover apples from making pickles, and instead of eating them, I diced and put them in a jar with maple syrup, cinnamon and cloves.

As a frugal person, I'm always thinking of ways to save money, so I started pickling fruits and vegetables to reduce food waste. I used the marinated leftover apple to make an apple cake, and you could smell and taste it in the cake. It was so good I added the process to my recipe, and I wasn't done discovering good things by mistake.

I usually take my tablet to the kitchen when I'm cooking, as it is dangerous to leave the cooker on and go back to my room. That way I can keep an eye on the food while watching a tv show. I was watching Nodame Cantabile on Netflix when I started making an apple cake dough. I was so focused on the drama, I didn't realise I had forgotten to add an important ingredient to the dough. I even left it on the worktop for a few minutes without realising what was missing from the mix.

As a long-time J-dramas fan, it makes me happy to see how accessible they've become over the years, but it's also so distracting. Anyway, once the oven was hot enough, I put in the cake and sat down to continue watching the drama. Nearly 20 minutes after it went into the oven, I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to add sugar to the dough. Can you believe that I was baking a sugarless cake, and what was it even going to taste like?

I prefer sweeteners to sugar in my coffee, but I wasn't thrilled by the idea of eating a cake without sugar, as it's one of the most important ingredients. I panicked for a moment and wondered if I should take it out and throw it away before it finished baking, then again, I don't like wasting food. I wasn't planning on sharing the cake with anyone, so it was fine to bake a sugarless cake for myself. I shrugged it off and kept watching the drama until the cake was ready.

I like to put my cake in a plastic container overnight to let the flavour come out. It also tastes better this way, but I was curious about the apple cake since I forgot to add sugar. What I considered a mistake turned out to be a genius moment when I ate a piece of the cake. It was absolutely delicious, and I'm not saying it to pat myself on the back. It is truly the best cake I've made so far, and baking isn't a hobby someone on a weight loss should embrace, but I'm so glad I did.

It's embarrassing to admit, but I ate that cake in one sitting, and there was nothing left in the morning. It was supposed to be for breakfast. I know, cake for breakfast?! Weird, but it keeps full until dinner, as I only have two meals a day. Having a cake with yoghurt in the morning is good for me, and it's helping me lose weight even though I probably gained a couple of kilos eating it in one sitting.

It isn't easy to lose weight in your 40s, and I made it even harder by taking up baking as a hobby. Homemade baking is a healthier option than store-bought treats, but it's still packed with calories, which is why I keep gaining back the weight I'm losing. I don't want to give up on baking, so I'll have to work on my discipline!