I’m unsure what brought me to feeling like apple cake this afternoon. Maybe it is the Halloween costume ideas from Ellen Degeneres on youtube, the supposedly cooling October days (it’s still shorts and t-shirt weather here in the Med) or the oh-so-stylish autumn fashion outfits on Pinterest, but something definitely got me in the mood for baking this afternoon.

And baking I did…  I have to warn you though, when I say I baked a good old fashioned apple cake, I also mean it.  It has full fat full flavour sweet red apples, butter, white self-raising flower, vanilla sugar and eggs in it. It is a far cry from anything remotely vegan, gluten free, sugar free or egg free, but it is utterly delicious and scrumptious….

So considering you properly warned, you would need the following ingredients:

• 4 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 200 gr. white self-raising flour,
• 200 gr. white sugar
• 140 gr. butter, softened
• approx. 8 gr. vanilla sugar
• 3-4 sweet apples, peeled and cut in quarters
• grated cinnamon (optional)

Method:

Add the white sugar and vanilla sugar to the egg yolks and mix till you have a homogenous mass.  Your yolks will turn light yellow in the process, but this is normal.  Soften your butter to an almost liquid state, by heating it up in the microwave in 20-30 second intervals. If your butter becomes hot in the process, leave to cool. Adding the hot butter to the eggs, may “cook” the yolks, which is not what we want!

Add the butter to the yolks and sugar mix, and mix well.  Then bit by bit, add on the sifted flour and mix further till smooth.  Use an electrical whisk to beat your egg whites stiff and carefully spoon these under the main mix.

At this point, I use a piece of butter to butter a round cake tin till both the bottom and the sides are buttered. Add a tablespoon of flour which you then turn in the cake tin, to cover all the buttered sides slightly.  I also hold the tin upside down over the sink and tap it, so any excess flour will come out.

Whilst letting the dough rest for a bit, you may want to start preheating your oven on hot air on approx.160 degrees Celsius.  Take your apple quarters and slice them in slices of 2-3 mm thick.  Put on the side.

Take your cake tin and add half of the batter to the tin.  Spread evenly over the bottom with a spatula.    Add on a good layer of apple slices, pushing each slice slightly into the dough so they keep stuck.  I try to cover the full surface, to have a nice sweet layer of apple in the middle of the cake.  Then add on the remaining dough and spread evenly over the apple layer.  After this, I push in the remaining apple slices.   You can push them in slightly at random, or really make a pattern to make your cake look pretty.  For the added fall touch, I grated some cinnamon over the top.

Cook your cake on 160 degrees Celsius for approx. 40 minutes and use a knitting needle (or similar) to test the dough.  If your needle comes out with dough on it, the cake isn’t cooked enough yet.  I would add on another 5 to 10minutes to the cooking time before trying again.  When golden brown and cooked through, take your cake out of the oven and let it cool.  Serving options are the cake as is, or with a touch of honey or apricot marmalade, or with extra grated cinnamon, ice cream and a dollop of whipped cream.

Have you tried any of my recipes?  Which one?  Let me know!