The UK apple season runs through Autumn and Winter. We have loads of different varieties at the moment and the orchards are packed full of apples. My good friend Sarah gave us a basket full of apples a few weeks ago, and I have been looking to find a good recipe to use them. Then another good friend, Maria, mentioned her mother’s apple cake recipe (from Greece); with use of cinnamon, it sounded yummy and reminded me my mother’s version. Cakes and pastries are favorite tea time treats in Turkey, and we use cinnamon, nuts and fruits in our cakes too.
So with our English apples, we gave it a go for Maria’s apple cake. The result was a lovely, moist apple cake with wonderful smells of cinnamon. This is quite a generous size of a cake and would be great for cake bake, gatherings, parties. Children love to be involved too! We added walnuts though you can skip that if you’d like it nut free (or add another nut of your choice) or add raisins instead. My special thanks to Sarah for the wonderful apples, and Maria, for the lovely recipe:)
Serves 10-12
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 45-50 minutes
4-5 medium size apples, peeled and cut in small chunks
Juice if 1/2 lemon
4 eggs, beaten
460gr/1lb plain flour
340gr/12oz caster sugar
115gr/4oz/1/2cup crushed walnuts
15ml/1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
15ml/1tablespoon baking powder
100ml/1/2 cup sunflower oil
Icing sugar to decorate (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
Prepare a large size baking tray by greasing it lightly with sunflower oil.
Mix the apples with the lemon juice in a bowl (that will prevent apples to get darker).
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until smooth. Add the oil and keep on beating. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and stir in the baking powder, mix well. Add this flour mixture to the sugar/egg/oil mixture, mix well. Finally stir in the apples, walnuts and cinnamon, and combine well.
Pour the cake mixture into the greased baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. The cake should rise and turn golden brown at top. You can insert a skewer to see if the cake is cooked – if the skewer comes clean that means it is cooked. If not, cook for a futher 5-10 minutes.
Once cooked, cool down the cake for about 15 minutes. You can dust with the icing sugar if you like. Slice the cake and serve; some vanilla ice cream by the side goes well too.
Afiyet Olsun!
