Apple Cornmeal Cake

By now, I have discovered that baking relaxes me, in spite of the many failed outcomes.

The process of baking always consumes me. It is almost like meditation, whereby you zoom your focus on to one thing and forget about everything else.

Alas, baking is nothing like meditation in one respect.

Meditation does not take up permanent residence on your hips.

A down day at work found me recalling an aunt's apple pie cake. Something like that might get me through the rest of the day.

Because The Failed Chef is intrepid, but more importantly, impatient, I decided to concoct something myself. I have
a) corn muffin mix in the pantry
b) Granny Smith apples in the fridge

This will have to do. At least, my overworked, emotionally-wrought mind thinks so.

(Does anyone know if minds have emotions?)

Idiot-friendly Apple Corn Cake

1. Follow the instructions on the package to make the corn muffin batter.
2. Peel the apples and slice them.
3. Pour the corn muffin batter into a 9-inch loaf pan.
4. Insert the apple slices and line them up in the batter.
5. Follow the baking instructions and bake in pre-heated oven.

It turned out okay (thank you muffin mix!), though the apples were not baked enough to be caramelized so it was still pretty hard. To counteract blandness, you can always count on yet more calories to come to the rescue!

I took out my Pillsbury cream cheese frosting, sliced the cake loaf in half and slathered the middle with the frosting. So my baking skills haven’t quite improved.

But at least my mood did!

What would The Failed Chef do next time?

• Get my aunt's recipe
• Or find another recipe that caramelizes the apple pieces - cinnamon and brown sugar perhaps?