Dutch Apple Cake

Apple cake made on tour, Oct2010

Adapted from a recipe I found in Red Magazine (Nov2008)

• 2 eggs
• 175g caster sugar (plus 15g more for sprinkling)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 75g butter
• 75ml milk
• 125g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 20cmx20cm square cake tin (lined with greaseproof paper)
• 4 cooking apples (peeled, cored & sliced)*

 Oven temperature: 200°C/400°F/Gas 6

 Method:

1.       Whisk eggs, 175g caster sugar and vanilla until thick & 'moussy' - it takes about 5mins with an electric whisk.

2.       In a pan: melt butter and add milk, then pour onto the egg-mixture & whisk it all again.

3.       Sift the flour, cinnamon and baking powder and fold carefully into the egg-mixture, make sure that there are no lumps of flour in the mixture and pour it carefully into the tin.

4.       Chuck on all of the apple slices: some will sink, some will stay on the top, don't be pretty - just chuck them on.  By the time you've put all of the apple on - you might not see any cake-mixture - this is good!

5.       Sprinkle the last 15g of sugar on the top of the cake (which will be mostly apples)

6.       Bake for 10mins on 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 THEN reduce the temperature down to 180°c/350°F/Gas 4 and bake for a further 25minutes.

7.       It will be golden brown when it's ready, and it'll smell delicious too.

8.       You can serve it warm with cream (or ice-cream).  Or from the fridge (chilled).

*The original recipe says 2 cooking apples (peeled, cored & cut into thin slices), but this supposed to be an apple cake, and we want apple!  The last cake I made had at least 4 cooking apples in it and they weren't thinly sliced either (some 1cm thick), but it tasted delicious!