Chocolate Dutch Apple Cake

Oh my! This cake is pretty darn delicious! Mom and I made this cake the same night we made the Tom Kha soup. After my first bite I knew I had to have the recipe. She's made it before but I think we were missing the secret ingredient.
Chera was over on Friday and I decided to make this cake at home. The one I made was pretty yummy but it was missing something. What takes this cake to a different level is fresh, ground nutmeg. When the cake has aged (give it a day or so...) the nuttiness of the fresh, ground nutmeg blossoms and it takes this cake to a whole new level. After leaving my regular nutmeg cake be for a day, it was just as yummy as the day it came out of the oven but it didn't have that hint of nutmeg that Mom's cake had. So Santa, if you're reading this, I'd like a nutmeg grinder for Christmas. :)
Now Chera wasn't able to have some cake on Friday so I promised her that I would keep some. I think this will be a promise that will be hard to keep. I gave Sean a piece on Saturday when he went snowboarding with the guys. He (who has tried Mom's recipe) said it was just as delicious as Mom's but mine had more apples (which is true, it did, I added 3 cups instead of 2 and kept the peel on, which I think Mom removed). When I spoke to him today, I told him I forgot to give him a piece of chocolate apple cake for work today. I think his response to that was 'Yeah you did!". Which made me laugh. What can I say, I am not thinking straight at 6am when he leaves for work. Actually I barely even hear him leave most of the time. I am pretty sure that between the two of us, the entire cake will be gone by Wednesday (which is when Chera comes over again and we'll be making Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts and my favorite Naughty Chocolate Espresso Peppered Orange Cookies*) and all that will be left of the cake is something like this...

Chocolate Dutch Apple Cake

2 Eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (freshly ground if you can)
1/2 cup milk
2 cups diced apples
1 cup chopped walnuts

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar, then add 3/4 cup melted butter.
Blend together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add to egg mixture alternating with milk, stirring until just moistened.
Blend in apples and chopped walnuts.
Pour into a greased and floured 8-cup pan (like a bundt pan, or a large loaf pan). Bake at 350 for 40-45 mins.

*These Naughty Chocolate Espresso Peppered Orange Cookies were a hit two years ago when I made them in a combination Naughty & Nice cookie tin (the 'Nice' cookies were Organic Spelt Ginger Snaps... as delicious as they were, they didn't hold a candle to the 'Naughty' cookies). The recipe is a fusion of two recipes. I'm still playing around with the flavors so that it can become my staple Christmas Cookie.