Apple Cheesecake Bread

This divine and easy to make apple loaf is delightful in both flavour and texture. There's added fruit and vegetables hidden inside the cake as well as another hidden surprise - a delicious cheesecake layer in the centre!

I love loaf cakes, I mean I have a serious love for these simple but delicious cakes that you simply slice up and add to a lunchbox. But Leah's loaf cake was one step better. It had a middle cheesecake layer! Leah upps the goodness of her bread by adding in two carrots and two apples. The apples of course contribute to the apple cheesecake flavour and there's a middle layer of cheesecake in between which means that this doesn't really need butter or anything added to it. Although you know I tested it with some butter just in case (honey mixed with butter specifically, the honey was medicinal! ;)). And it was excellent! If you love moist, cakes with lots of fruit and goodness inside them with a little bit extra then I urge you to try this delicious recipe!

Sometimes life throws you a curveball and challenges and the best thing to do is turn to your friends for other girl favours (and I'm not excluding boy favours, it's just everyone in this story happens to be female). I was sick in bed this week but I needed to make something simple. So I turned to my friend Leah who had Instagrammed this recipe a few weeks back.

We were talking the other night about how friends can really help you out in social situations. I think your friends may instinctively know when you need a bit of help but what if you agreed ahead of time to help each other in certain situations?

Take one of my favourite shows, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. There is one scene where the nanny Kimmy has to help out her employer Jacqueline Vorhees who suspects her husband is having an affair with another person who will attending a dinner party that evening. Jacqueline tells Kimmy for a girl favour and to yell out, "Not her over Jacqueline?!!" which made me snort laugh because that is the exact kind of thing that we all need at some point. We thought that we could apply the idea of these girl favours to situations where you were out with a single friend and if she saw someone that she liked you would say very loudly, "Oh you're so funny! No wonder so many guys ask you out!" or "You are so clever and on point! I can't believe that you're single!".

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever help friends out in social situations like this? And is there a television show that mimics your life? Do you like the idea of the cheesecake layer in the centre?

Apple Cheesecake Bread

Adapted from Leah at Home Empress

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45-50 minutes

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup wholemeal self raising flour
• 1/2 cup plain self raising flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup raisins or dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 apples, cored
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 cup oil

• 2 eggs

• 150g/5ozs cream cheese

• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract or paste

Step 1 - Line a loaf tin and preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Place the rolled oats, wholemeal and plain flours in a bowl along with the sugar, dried fruit and spices. Stir to combine.

Step 2 - In a food processor, process the apples and carrots with the oil until they are finely chopped. Add the eggs in and whiz for a few seconds just to combine. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet mix to it and stir to combine. Layer about half of the mix into the baking tin.

Step 3 - Rinse out the processor and then place the cream cheese, flour, egg, honey or sugar and vanilla in it and process until you get a smooth mixture. Spoon on top of the batter in the tin and then add the remaining batter on top.

Step 4 - Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.