Chocolate chip rebellion

I've had a lot of apples to bake with recently. I planted espalier trees in my garden two years ago - two pear trees, and two apple - and after a desultory first year, they decided they weren't going to commit mass suicide after all, and with much coaxing and the help of the mild weather that Gardener's World has been going nuts about for weeks now (hard to imagine, that - gardeners going nuts - you equate GW with a sort of post-lobotomy calm rather than impassioned glee, which is precisely why you should tune in sometime - you're in for a shocker), while my pear trees have erred on the circumspect side, still a bit suspicious of their surroundings, and have yielded only one pear each, my apple trees have happily had a proverbial field day. I have pondered what to do with them and my last post was partly about the rebel in me rejecting apple pies and apple compote that form the bulk of apple - related baking. And I have to tell you that those apple, peanut butter and cinnamon cookies that I baked with the first batch were the best cookies ever. But they only use one apple to make, so an unsatisfactory solution to the conundrum of what to do with my bushels of fruit before they rot on me. Mary Berry's apple loaf cake seemed like a good way forward - three apples needed for the recipe, which makes two loaves, in theory. I got going - bowls and measuring cups out, apron on, hair tied back, cinnamon and flour at the ready - and then paused over a reference to apricot jam. It's very Mary Berry isn't it, apricot jam. Very British and villagey and WI and it evokes National Trust tea rooms and floral socks. I loathe apricot jam, however,  but I am halfway through my cake prep so I have to think fast about what I replace it with. I turn out my baking cupboards and decide that dark chocolate would go really well with the tart sweetness of the apple. So I tip a load in. I chuck the loaf mix in the oven (going for one huge cake rather than two sweet, perfectly proportioned ones - just one of many reasons why I wouldn't last five minutes on the Great British Bake Off) and when it comes out, smelling apply and chocolatey, I look at its demarara encrusted top, and decide further experimentation is needed. Mary had wanted sliced apple and further jam glaze to crown these loaves. I pull out white chocolate chips, and and toss them liberally all over the top. Thickly. I have in fact created a double chocolate apple demarara cake, which, judging from its popularity, has knocked the floral socks off apricot jam. My point? Chocolate chips are for so much more than decorating birthday cupcakes with. They are for cavalier, rebellious, mid-bake experimentation. Tear open the packet. And chuck in.