Another recipe tried in the covid-19 cooking class. It is a great time of year to try this cake with an abundance of apples available. It is easy to make and tastes best, in my opinion, served slightly warm with either whipped cream or ice-cream.

The recipe was taken from “Simple” by Yotam Ottolenghi

 

Ingredients

130 g unsalted butter softened

150 g caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

300 g SR flour, sifted

¼ tsp salt

200 g sour cream

 

2 large Bramley apples or equivalent (460 g), peeled cored and cut into 1.5 cm wedges

1 Granny Smith apples  (125 g), peeled cored and cut into 1.5 cm wedges.

130 g demerara sugar

1 tbsp mixed spice

 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (less for a fan forced oven, 160°C) and grease and line, with baking paper, the base and sides of a 22 cm springform cake tin.
2. Beat the softened butter and castor sugar until pale and fluffy
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
4. Beat in vanilla extract.
5. Add the flour, alternating with the sour cream in 2-3 batches and beat until just combined.
6. Spoon the cake batter into the cake pan.
7. Place all the apple wedges into a bowl. Mix together the demerara sugar and mixed spice and sprinkle over the apple wedges. Toss to coat the apples with the sugar mix.
8. Spoon the apples over the top of the cake batter.
9. Cook the cake, in the middle of the oven, for approximately 60 minutes or until the top is crisp, firm and golden brown – there should be no wobble to the cake if you move it a little.
10. Allow the cake to cool in the cake pan for 30 minutes, before removing the cake pan.
11. Serve with whipped cream, ice-cream or vanilla bean yoghurt.

Tips

1. I found the 130 g of demerara sugar too much on the top of the cake and I think you could use 100g. There was a lot of loose sugar on top of the cake once it had finished cooking, so I put it under the grill to melt the sugar, hence the slight dark bits on the top of the cake.
2. Use a serrated knife to slice the cake to prevent the apples from tearing.