Saturday 13 March 2010

Apple Crumble Cake




Seeing as apples are at their best in February there is still an abundances of this great fruit around. Take advantage of this time and bake this amazing apple cake. Indeed this recipe is amazing, but the crumble topping does just take it from being a dull apple cake to a an absolutely delicious dessert.



Apple Crumble Cake

175g unsalted butter

150g sugar
4 apples (peeled, cored and sliced into thin wedges)
3 eggs

200g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

150g creme fraiche ( I used reduced fat ; plain Greek (Total) yogurt could also be used)
zest of a lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp honey or maple syrup

For the crumble topping:

80g almonds, finely chopped (can use hazelnuts or walnuts)
50g butter
50g brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
75g plain flour

1)Butter and line a 20/23 cm round tin.
2)For the crumble topping: melt the butter and mix in the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and chopped nuts.
3) In a pan heat 25g of butter with 1tbsp of sugar and add the apple wedges. Cook these for about 10-15 minutes until they are tender and turn a lovely golden colour.
4) For the cake: cream the remaining butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time( if the mixture looks like it may curdle, simply add 1tbsp of flour to the mixture).
5) Fold the flour, lemon zest, cinnamon and baking powder to the butter mixture. 6) Add the creme fraiche and mix together till you have a smooth batter.
7) Spoon about 2/3 of the cake mixture into the tin and spread it level, then sprinkle over about 1/3 of the crumble mix.
8) Pour in the remaining cake batter and top with a light layer of the crumble mix. Top this off with the apple slices, arranged neatly, and finally scatter the remaining crumble mixture over the top. If you want you could sprinkle over an extra tablespoon or two of almonds, to give the cake extra crunch.

9) Bake at 180C/ gas 4 for an hour and a half. If the cake seems to be getting brown too quickly, simply cover the top with a sheet of aluminium foil or baking parchment.
10) Once the cake has cooled for 10 minutes, heat the honey or maple syrup and drizzle over the top.