Homemade apple cake!

AB's mum is quite the quintessential domestic goddess that I couldn't even dream of becoming. I had witnessed her prowess as a hostess in Luxumbourg, keeping her home in tip top condition while cooking and preparing a dizzying amount of food with barely any repetition. I should also mention that for lunch and dinner nearly everyday that we were there, she prepared three different versions of dishes, to cater to varying nutritional and dietary needs. Impressive is an understatement to describe her aptitude as a hostess.

Here on vacation, she declared leisurely over breakfast that she felt like baking a cake. "Nothing complicated," she said, just a "simple apple cake" for us to have for tea one of these days. She waved her hands dismissively, "I will get some ingredients from the supermarket, just show me what you have in the kitchen."

O_O That was the moment I knew how far away I was from her on the dom-goddess scale. I can't imagine ever thinking of baking anything during a vacation. Not even slapping spoonfuls of ready-made cookie dough onto a baking sheet and chucking it into an oven. Baking are special projects I embark on as assignments for myself once in a very blue moon. If I could, I would probably have shrank into a tiny kitchen elf and slunk away in dejection at my unworthiness.

But I don't animate (thankfully), so I just gave a weak smile and showed her where the flour, sugar and scale were. She smiled, "Cést parfait! I will get the rest." She winked.

And so a few days later, we had this beautiful cake sitting on the dining table. A generous piece was cut and served to me. The aroma of the apples reached my nose as I lifted the first bite to my mouth, and the cake tasted gorgeous. It wasn't very sweet at all, which was perfect, and the chunks of Granny Smiths lent a nice balance with its subtle tartness too. This was a cake made with pleasure and I was almost certain I could taste that, too. The coffee and conversations that afternoon around the table were the perfect accompaniment to it.

When I gushed my appreciation, she helpfully wrote down the recipe for it - four ingredients in total, and really straightforward measurements too. Alright, it looks doable enough - I might just make it one of my special projects this year.