German Apple Cake

Rachel Allen Dutch apple cake

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.

 

 

 

Apple pecan teacake

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!

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German Apple Cake
Soft, light & fluffy cake with a hint of cinnamon.
Cuisine Modern British
Prep Time 15 min
Cook Time 50 min
Servings
generously
Ingredients
Cuisine Modern British
Prep Time 15 min
Cook Time 50 min
Servings
generously
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Prepare a 9” round cake tin by lining it with parchment or greaseproof paper and buttering it lightly.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Arrange the apple slices, flat-side down, on the batter in a spiral pattern.
  5. 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.
Optional step
  1. If serving as a dessert, serve warm with whipped cream. Add some honey and vanilla extract to the cream.
  2. 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.
Recipe Notes

It's easy to warm the cake in the microwave for a few short bursts.

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