Desserts

Apple cake

Name: Apple cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 0.38 Eggs (3 for every 8 people, at room temperature); 18.75 g Caster sugar (keep a teaspoon for the apples); 6.25 ml Whole milk; 7.5 g Butter (plus a little for the tin); 37.5 g Plain flour (type 00) (plus a little for the tin); 2 g Baking powder (one 16 g sachet for every 8 people); 0.25 Large apples (2 for every 8 people)

Apple cake is the classic Italian sideboard cake: a soft sponge with no cream or filling, with apples inside and on top. In this version a quarter of the apples goes into the batter in small cubes, which keeps every slice moist, and the rest is laid in thin slices over the surface, where it caramelises under a dusting of sugar. It takes 10 minutes to put together with ingredients most kitchens already have, and bakes for 45 minutes in a conventional oven at 180 °C. Quantities are for one person: for a 24 cm tin choose 8 people.

Apple cake topped with golden apple slices and cinnamon on a white plate, next to a red apple

Prep 10 minCook 45 minTotal 55 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients for 1 person

0.5Eggs, 3 for every 8 people, at room temperature
19 gCaster sugar, keep a teaspoon for the apples
6.25 mlWhole milk
7.5 gButter, plus a little for the tin
38 gPlain flour (type 00), plus a little for the tin
2 gBaking powder, one 16 g sachet for every 8 people
0.5Large apples, 2 for every 8 people

Method

1
Heat a conventional oven to 180 °C. Butter the tin, dust it with flour and turn it upside down, tapping the base to knock out the excess.
5 min
2
Peel and core the apples. Cut a quarter of them into cubes of about 1 cm and slice the rest thinly.
5 min
3
Melt the butter and let it cool slightly. Beat the eggs with an electric whisk, add the sugar a little at a time, keeping back a teaspoon, then pour in the milk and the melted butter while still whisking.
4 min
4
Add the flour a spoonful at a time and the baking powder last, mixing until the batter is smooth with no lumps. Fold in the apple cubes with a spatula.
3 min
5
Pour the batter into the tin and level it. Lay the apple slices over the top in slightly overlapping circles and dust them with the sugar you kept back.
3 min
6
Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer in the centre comes out dry.
45 min
7
Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out, so it does not break.
10 min

Tips

The best apples are Golden Delicious or Reinette: they hold their shape in the oven and are sweet enough to need no extra sugar. Slice them 2 to 3 mm thick so they cook in the same time as the cake.
Eggs, milk and butter at room temperature whip up better: take them out of the fridge half an hour ahead.
The cake is done when a skewer pushed into the centre comes out dry. If the top browns too fast, cover it with foil for the last 10 minutes.
It keeps for up to 3 days at room temperature under a cake dome. As a dessert serve it with a spoonful of whipped cream; at breakfast it is good dunked in milk.

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