We love all manner of apple cakes. I have a few recipes in my repertoire, but we can’t decide what we like best. A Dutch apple cake by Rachel Allen, which is soft and moist, but a tad bit sweet.
There’s also an apple cinnamon and pecan teacake, given me by a dear friend, which is richer (has butter and sour cream) and needs no accompaniment. I quite like the addition of the nuts as it gives the cake some crunch, but no doubt it’s heavier than Stein’s cake, see below.
This time however, I was keen to try out Rick Stein’s recipe ( from his new book ‘Long Weekends”). This recipe is apparently from one of Berlin’s oldest restaurants, and is a lot lighter on butter and sugar than Allen’s. I did make one change to the recipe by adding some vanilla extract as I find it slightly eggy without it. It was delicious devoured warm with some softly whipped cream (to which I like to add some honey and vanilla extract).
The jury is still out on which one is the family favourite. Judging by the quantities consumed by the boys, I would say this has to be in one of the top two!
| Prep Time | 15 min |
| Cook Time | 50 min |
| Servings |
generously
|
- 3 dessert or eating apples peeled, cored and sliced into thin wedges
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 125 g unsalted butter softened
- 140 g golden caster sugar
- 3 eggs at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 225 g plain or all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoon full-fat milk
- For the topping
- 1 tablespoon demerara sugar or brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Ingredients
|
|
- Preheat the oven to 175C. Prepare a 9” round cake tin by lining it with parchment or greaseproof paper and buttering it lightly.
- Coat the apple wedges in the lemon juice and set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar, using an electric hand mixer, until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Beat in vanilla extract.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and gently fold into the batter, in batches, with the milk. Mix well after each addition, until you have a smooth batter. Transfer the batter to the cake tin.
- Arrange the apple slices, flat-side down, on the batter in a spiral pattern.
- For the topping, mix together the demerara sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the batter. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes – 50min , or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean and the top is golden-brown. Leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin. Run a knife around the edges of the cake and turn it out of the tin onto a wire rack.
- If serving as a dessert, serve warm with whipped cream. Add some honey and vanilla extract to the cream.
- Before serving - for a gloriously caramelised finish, sprinkle on a little more sugar on the top of cake and use a blow torch to brûlée the top.
It's easy to warm the cake in the microwave for a few short bursts.