Helena's spiced apple and apricot tea-loaf

A frantic morning with a meeting to sort out issues has now passed. I am reasonably happy with the outcome and can now make my plans.

The first of which was to ring Patrick and arrange to go to visit him in Dorset this afternoon for a couple of days. We both enjoy rugby so I thought we could rise early and sit quietly brooding in front of the tv with seriously strong and large cups of coffee. We went to school together and have stayed in contact ever since.

I was within five minutes of being prepared to leave before the motorway gets clogged with late afternoon traffic, when Helena announced up the stairs that she had a 'blip' for me. She is usually reliable, and in fact it wasn't hard to guess what she had in mind, as the yummy baking smells have been spreading through the house for a couple of hours. The title explains what the recipe called for, but Helena has added nuts, sesame seed and other odd goodies. Mmmmmm!

She has made three cakes, but this was the first one out of the oven and I like its heart shape. She wanted this shot from the few I took, as it has 'a crumbly, muffin-ey look' which is what she had envisaged. Patrick is going to be lucky as she has donated one whole cake for my trip, so we shall be enjoying this later.

Must rush. Dorset calls.