These bright, frosty autumn days inspire me to make comforting foods. I recently asked my friends on Instagram for their best apple cake recipes for my cake and apple loving children and no surprises, they came up with the goods. The favourites were Smitten Kitchen’s Mom’s Apple Cake, Anna Jones Apple and Molasses Cake, Mary Stearns Apple Cake and Lunch Lady’s Apply Crumbly Cake. I’ve included the links to all of these in case you’d like to give them a go and share your results!
The recipe I landed on in the end was Sunday Suppers Apple & Olive Oil Cake. I’d never baked a cake with olive oil before and curiosity got the better of me. I found the recipe made enough batter for two whole cakes so for the purpose of this post, I’ve halved the quantities because, in all honesty, it’s a lot of precious oil to use otherwise.
One cake should last a week of afternoon delights for you and your little ones. My children enjoyed this warmed through with a pouring of cream, served cold for a treaty weekend breakfast and even mushed up with a dollop of custard on top for pudding one evening. Whilst it sounds fancy and looks pretty, this cake is actually very simple to make. The texture is moist and indulgent without being sickly or heavy helped by the fresh lemon infused apple slices. Do let me know what you think if you give it a try. It’s set to be my favourite seasonal treat!
Ingredients
- Butter, for the baking dish
- 1.5 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cups whole milk
- Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 cups plain flour, plus extra for the baking dish
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- Juice of 1/4 lemon
- 1 medium apple
- A sprinkling of icing sugar
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180* fan. Grease your cake tin
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Stir in the olive oil, milk, and lemon zest.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring until just blended. Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
- Place the lemon juice in a large bowl. Peel the apples, and using a mandoline, thinly slice them. Drop the slices into the lemon juice to prevent browning. Arrange the apple slices on top of the cake batter in circles, overlapping them.
- Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. (The bake time may vary. If the cake needs more time but is browning too quickly, tent it with foil and continue baking.) Cool in the pan before turning out onto a cool rack.
- Once cool dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice-cream, double cream, custard or just as it comes!
Yummm! Making it today. ❤️