| 300 g (1 2/3 cups) dried apricots, chopped |
200 g (3/4 cup) unsweetened puréed cooked apple |
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter |
| 1 1/2 tablespoons light olive oil |
| 60 ml (1/4 cup) buttermilk |
| 3 eggs |
| 2 teaspoons vanilla essence |
| 2 teaspoons grated orange rind |
| 350 g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar |
| 425 g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour |
| 1 teaspoon baking powder |
| 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda |
| 1. | Use a 23-cm round tin. Lightly grease tin and line with baking (parchment) paper. Preheat oven to 180°C. | |
2. | Place 60 g (1/3 cup) dried apricots, all the apple purée and 120 ml (1/2 cup) water in a saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the apricots have softened. Transfer mixture to a blender or food processor. Add the butter, oil and buttermilk and process until smooth. Leave the mixture to cool slightly, then add the eggs, vanilla essence and orange zest, blending just until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the sugar. |
| 3. | Sieve the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Fold the flour mixture into the apricot mixture in 3 batches. Fold in remaining apricots; place mixture in prepared tin. | |
4. | Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. |
Dear Future Centenarian, About thirty years ago, I was hospitalized with a blood infection. In their infinite wisdom, the hospital staff gave me an intravenous injection of antibiotics which cleared up my infection... but it also damaged my hearing. My right ear is especially affected, and my doctor advised hearing aids don't seem to help this type of damage very much. I mention this because I often hear people object to age reversal pursuits as "not being natural". But these same people probably don't think wearing hearing aids or getting cochlear implants is 'unnatural'. But they are the same things in principal. Virtually everything we do in modern society can be considered unnatural. Every time you use tools created by human intelligence to enhance your life or to prevent damage which would undermine your health, you are defying nature. Since we understand what causes tooth decay, we brush our teeth. And since we know certain bacteria can make us sick, we wash our hands with soap. These seem like natural responses to your environment, don't they? And they are if you use your head. So don't you think it actually is natural to enhance your health and longevity with toothpaste, soap, antibiotics and pacemakers too? Isn't that what our intellect is designed to do? Reversing the aging process is way more complex, as are the tools we will need to develop to stop the damage aging heaps upon us, but the principle is the same. Reversing hearing loss and aging are simply extensions of basic medicine as we march into the 21st century. Here's an example of what science is doing to keep me from annoying you every time I ask you to repeat yourself. |
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