A classic combination of flavour for one of our household staples: Mum's to-die-for apple cake. This is not a pie or a tart, it is spongy bit of goodness which was one of Mum's first bake and my late Grandad's favourite.
This is 100% my Mum's recipe and the only thing I can take credit for is on this one, is the unusual shape of this bake and the ability to follow instructions. This is the very first cake I learnt to bake with my Mum and a staple recipe which I have made (and tasted!) innumerable times in my life. This is truly my comfort blanket of baking!
To me the best quality of this recipe is that is relies on pretty unconventional measurements: forget you metric, imperial and cup system. The ingredients for this tea- time treat are measured with a yoghurt pot! This cake is normally baked into a round tin, but I opted for a loaf version this time: I ended up with a messy top, but a yummy core!
Yields one loaf
Ingredients:
The ingredients have been measured in YOGHURT POTS. Most small pots will be between 120-150g. In my case I used a 165g pot of vanilla yoghurt.
- 1 pot of yoghurt (you can use any flavour you like, however I would suggest something not too overpowering and with no fruit bits. At home I would use citrus yoghurt but could not find it in the UK)
- 2 eggs
- 5 apples (I used Pink Lady because they are my favourite but any apple will do. At home I would generally use Golden Delicious)
- 3 pots of plain flour
- 1 pot of caster sugar
- 1/2 pot of oil (olive oil or sunflower seed oil)
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract (you can use a full tsp if you don't use vanilla as your yoghurt flavour) - 1 tbsp of lemon juice
- 7g of baking powder (about 1 heaped tsp)
- a bit of cinnamon & granulated sugar for dusting
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 170C.
Place the yoghurt in a small bowl and set aside. Wash and dry your yoghurt pot to measure all your other ingredients.
I generally start by peeling, coring and thinly slicing my apples as I am quite slow at this (using a peeler is an inexplicable bloody struggle for my fingers). You can leave this as a last step if you prefer - it will make no difference.
Once the apples are prepped, set them aside. Separate the egg whites in a bowl and add the sugar (set aside the yolks to be added later). With an electric whisker, whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak. Now add all of your ingredients to the beaten egg whites - try not to leave ALL of your wet ingredients at the end but balance the order.
Combine all the ingredients well - if the batter feels too stiff you can add some milk, a tablespoon at a time.
Line a cake tin (in my case a loaf tin) with baking paper.
1. If you are doing a round cake: pour the batter in the tin and level. Now start placing the sliced apples in a circle - once you have the surface covered use a spoon to push the apples through the batter. Then repeat the process as many times as necessary to go through your apple quantity. Or until you are satisfied with the amount of apple layers you have. Make sure your last layer is not pushed down as this will be your final top design!
2. If you are making a loaf cake: as there is a little less room to push the apples down without the batter overflowing I would suggest to split the batter. Pour some of the batter into the tin and do a couple of layers of apple slices. Proceed to pour more batter in and add more apples. You could do this twice or three times, depending on the size of your tin. Remember to keep the last layer of apples on the surface for your final design.
Regardless of the shape of your cake, finish by sprinkling some cinnamon and granulated sugar at the top so the apples will caramelise nicely.
Place in the centre of the oven and bake for about 40 min. If you are doing a loaf cake, the baking time will be extended as the batter will be more concentrated - I would suggest to bake for 40 min and then set a timer every 10 min to check the progress. Mine took closer to 1 hr. Check your cake's readiness with a good old-fashioned skewer test!
Some extra tips
If you have chopped up too many apple slices, don't let them go to waste! You can freeze them and use them to make lovely fruit smoothies! I had an apple, carrot, banana and ginger smoothie for my breakfast this morning and it was so quick and easy!
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