A Rustic Recipe with City Hippy Farm Girl

Today I am setting up for the biggest craft event of the year! At least in Tasmania. And so I'm excited to hand the reins over to my newest guest blogger, Brydie, from Cityhippyfarmgirl blog. I only recently discovered this lovely blog and it's full of great recipes and simple living ideas. Definitely a new favourite. Enjoy! 

'Rustic charm' is a term that can happily appeal to some people or instantly put them off, sending them running to their nearest brightly lit sleek lined furniture store. For me, I hear rustic and I sit a little straighter, my ears a little keener and I'm paying attention. 

A rustic cottage in the bush? Many people will be thinking of some clapped out old wooden hovel out to Woop Woop. Not me though. I'm thinking peaceful, retro filled charming house. Surrounded by wild flowers, a rocking chair on the wide front verandah, and a whimsical soft smoke wafting from the small chimney connected to the ever-baking Rayburn.

Thinking along food lines, rustic and I, we go way back. While I'm not adverse to the odd bit of fancy piping on a cake here and there, the majority of my food would definitely fall into the rustic category. It's simple, generally easy, free forming, no fluffing about, honest kind of food. If I can slap a rustic tag over it, even better. It softens the edges of the other wise descriptive words, "sloppy" looking.

This cake certainly sits on the rustic side of baking. Being made with wholemeal spelt it's not got that light and fluffiness that you get from regular flour. The spelt flour gives it a slightly nutty flavour, also sitting in your belly a little easier. Add a roughly sliced apple over the top in a decorative fashion to add to the 'rustic' charm of the cake and you have yourself an easy afternoon tea. Just the thing to eat while sipping a warming coffee, late afternoon, on the verandah of that rustic country cottage.

Apple Spelt Cake

2 cups wholemeal spelt flour

125g softened butter

2 beaten eggs

1/2 cup natural yogurt

1/2 cup raw sugar or honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 peeled apple

Cream butter, sugar/honey and vanilla together. Add the cinnamon, beaten eggs and natural yogurt. Fold through baking powder and spelt flour. Pop it all in to a greased and lined tin. Push the apple slices into the cake mixture and bake at 180C for 30 - 40mins.

About Brydie 

A city living mama to three and wife to one, trying to live as simply as possible in our busy world. Big dreams of ditching it all for a house with a view in Tasmania. Baking, making and creating something or other take up a good part of my day. Some of my favourite words - slowfood, sourdough, retro, seasonal, local, handmade, sustainable and cake. Yes, cake.