Desserts

Spiced Apple Cinnamon Cake

Winter, and the month of December send a different rush of excitement with everyone eagerly waiting for the arrival of Christmas! Celebrated with equal enthusiasm world over…places come alive with bustling and vivacious energy, young children go looking for their Santa Clause, charities and gifts making their way into all homes, beautifully decorated Christmas trees radiate festivity, love is in the air and everybody is spreading joy!

Even though there are loads of awesome foods, mulled wine, desserts and plenty more…the timeless Christmas cake continues to adorn the crown and remains my Christmas favourite too!

The traditional one which comes with colourful raisins, sultanas, currants etc. soaked in rum or brandy doesn’t work well with many kids and mine for sure! So, this year the mother in me decided to surprise them. While rummaging through my archives I came across a recipe of Spiced Apple Cinnamon Cake by Chef Ottolenghi…. So voila! with a little tweaking it turned out to be an absolute delight, looking great and tasting even better!

A perfect and flavour–some moist sponge cake with the goodness of apples. Kids would only wish and hope that they could have their fruit for the day in such a beautiful disguise!

So here’s the recipe which is easy to make. Wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Spiced Apple Cinnamon Cake

Course

Tea time treat/Dessert

Servings

10-12 (makes one big cake)

Preparation Time

10 minutes

Cook time

1 hour

Ingredients for Apple Cinnamon Cake

(1 cup = 250 ml) (1 tbsp = 15 ml)

130 gms

Salted butter (Amul) at room temperature

150 gms

Caster Sugar

4 Nos.

Eggs

2 tsp

Vanilla Extract

300 grms

Flour (maida)

1½ tsp

Baking powder

60 ml

Sour Cream

2 No.

Large red apples peeled, cored and cut into 1½ cm wedges

1 No.

Large Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1½ cm on wide wedges.

130 gms

Demerara Sugar

1 tsp

Cinnamon Powder

½ tsp

Clove Powder

½ tsp

Nutmeg powder

Vanilla ice cream to serve

Instructions for Apple Cinnamon Cake

Preheat your oven to 160 Deg. C. (fan oven) or 180 Deg. C. in normal oven. Grease and line a 23 cm round cake tin.

Place your butter and sugar in a bowl. Beat until light and fluffy. Lightly whisk the eggs and vanilla and add it to the butter sugar mixture, a little at a time, until incorporated.

Sift the flour and baking powder and add this in a couple of batches to the batter, alternating with the sour cream.

(If you do not get sour cream, take 190 gms fresh cream (Amul) add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and ½ cup milk; keep it aside for half an hour or so; then mix and use.)

Mix the batter well until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Spoon the batter into the cake tin and set aside.

Place the apple slices in a bowl. Mix in the demerara sugar along with the spices and sprinkle over the apples. Toss to coat well, then spoon the apple slices over the cake batter.

Bake in your pre heated oven for 60 – 65 minutes until the mixture has risen up around the apple and the top is crisp, firm and golden brown. Insert a skewer when the cake is out to check if it comes out clean. The cake is done when you shake the tin and check that the top doesn’t wobble.

Remove from the oven and cool aside for 30 minutes or so before removing from the tin.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You could also serve it with a cinnamon ice cream.

Tips for Cake Making

Please stick to exact measurement of a recipe

The eggs, butter cream should always be at room temperature

Always pre-heat your oven before working

The principle of keeping wet and dry ingredients separate and mixing them together just before baking is important. Once ingredients are blended, particularly, if using a chemical raising agent (baking powder, bicarb of soda) a reaction will occur; so it is imperative to place the cake in the oven as soon as possible

When mixing in dry and wet ingredients or egg whites, use as few strokes as possible to blend. Over mixing makes cakes heavy as it removes the essential air from the mix.