I have an apple tree in my garden. It has a special place in my heart because seeing its blossoms in the spring time lift my mood, and remind me that summer is on its way. Secondly, it’s the only thing likely, after many attempts, to bare fruit in my garden this year.

Apple Blossom

Our garden is fairly big, but already pretty shaded so when I set out to choose a variety of apple tree I bought a dwarf one. Eventually it will grow to 5 or 6 feet, but at the moment it’s only around 4 feet tall. This year it has only 6 apples on it, but even they seem too heavy for the branches!

Red Apple

When there are only 6 apples, you need to be careful what you do with them. While they may not be ready for another couple of weeks (as they haven’t fully turned red) I am already planning what to do with them.

As part of my first trial run, I made this Caramel Apple cake last weekend.

This cake got the thumbs up from my husband, who likes all things Apple of iPhone/Mac or pie/cake variety. Especially when the latter is covered in caramel sauce, not so much with the former… 😉

Apple Caramel Cake

This was a great cake, though don’t be tempted to miss out the glaze. It’s quite dense and would have been too dry without it.

You can find the recipe here on Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.

Apple Caramel Cake Slice

However I am not convinced that this is the recipe for my apples. If you only had 6 apples, what would you do with them?

Get in touch with me, I am @coffeemuffins on twitter.