AppLes GaLoRe

After all that chocolate last week, I wanted to make a fruit based cake instead. I was recently given this recipe by a friend who had attended a cooking school. She told me that the cake is simple to make especially when you have a stand mixer.

As usual, during the course of making the cake, some slight variations were made to the recipe. I reduced the butter used for sauteing the apples as 50grams was too much for me. Instead, I used about 2 tbsps of butter. I opted to use cinnamon as nothing complements apples better. I used a 7 inches square tin which I greased and lined with greaseproof paper. The butter and other ingredients were all at room temperature. Note that butter should not be too soft as it will affect the texture of your cake. Test the butter by pressing your finger into the softened butter, if it leaves an indentation but retains its shape, it is ready to be used.

Layered Apple Cake

For the Sauteed Apples:
3 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled
50g unsalted butter
2 tbsp fine granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

For the Cake:
150g unsalted butter, softened
150g fine granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 medium eggs
150g self raising flour, sifted
2 tbsp milk

For the apples; peel and core apples and cut them into 1 cm thick wedges. Melt butter (I used less than 50grams to to saute them) in a large non stick frying pan and when it starts to sizzle, add apple slices and stir around the butter.

Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over apples and continue to cook over fairly high heat to evaporate off any liquid and encourage sugar to carmelize around apple edges. Take pan off the heat and transfer apples to a plate to cool.

For the cake; grease the sides and line the base of a 20-22 cm round or a 19-21 cm square tin. Preheat the oven to 160C/170C.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract gradually, beating until mixture is smooth and glossy. Using a spatula, fold in the flour in three batches, alternating with the milk. Do not overstir or overbeat the mixture.

Spread about half the batter into the base of the prepared tin and arrange a layer of apples over this. Top with remaining batter, level top and arrange the remaining apples attractively on top. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until well risen and the skewer test comes out clean. Cool cake in tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.

The verdict of the cake between Splashie Boy and I was it was nice and not too sweet. Splashie Boy reckons that it will taste even better if served with custard. This recipe is a keeper since it's so simple to make and not too sweet. Besides apples, I reckon you can vary the fruit used.