Today we’re baking a sponge that doesn’t rise... and that’s the whole vibe. It’s a controlled-fall dessert: low, juicy, and with a little Newton-approved apple energy.

Ingredients:

• 2 apples (one for inside and one for the top, because fruit hierarchy is real)
• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar (or 80 g if you’re more “sweet, but with manners”)
• 100 ml mild olive oil or sunflower oil
• 120 ml milk
• 200 g wheat flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon (optional, but it does magic)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder (Royal-style), but don’t go overboard
• A little splash of lemon (so the apple doesn’t get sad)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 182 ºC and grease a low pan, because today we’re accepting reality. This won’t be a sponge-tower. It’s a sponge-floor.

Whisk the eggs with the sugar until they look happy. Add the oil and milk, and mix calmly.

In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add it to the wet mixture and stir just enough. Here’s the “respectable pancake” secret: if you beat it like crazy, it turns rubbery later, and that’s not the vibe.

Peel and dice one apple, mix it with a tiny bit of lemon, and toss it into the batter. Pour into the pan. Slice the other apple and place it on top like a “gravity crown”, pretty and effortless.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a bit, because the cake also needs to land.

Forest tip: if today you feel like you’re “not rising”, remember this cake. Some things aren’t here to grow, they’re here to anchor. And anchoring feeds you too.