I love this easy cake. It takes five minutes to make, and is a favourite for morning or afternoon tea, or as a simple warm dessert. It’s a moist, light vanilla cake with a caramel-ly soft apple topping and a mouth-watering crust of cinnamon sugar. Even if you’re not a cake maker I encourage you to give this one a go!
I’ve been experimenting with different varieties of apples lately. The apple I’ve used in this cake is one of the first of the season for a wonderful old heritage variety called Cox’s Orange Pippin. But this is always delicious with Granny Smith apples too.
Cake Ingredients:
65g x (5 tablespoons) softened butter, 2 x teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 x egg, 1/2 x cup sugar, 1 x cup self raising (self-rising for my USA friends or 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 and 1/2 x teaspoons baking powder and a pinch of salt, sifted together), 1/3 cup plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon sugar extra and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. 1 x apple, cored and cut into very thin slices. 1 x bundt pan well greased with butter or 1 x 20cm round cake tin, paper lined.
* Note – if you don’t have a bundt tin use a 20cm round cake tin, well lined with paper, and put the apples on the top! Then serve apple side up. It will turn out more like a traditional tea cake, but still be just as yum.
Topping ingredients:
1 x tablespoon melted butter, 1 x tablespoon sugar and 1 x teaspoon ground cinnamon
Method:
Preheat oven to moderate (160 degree celcius fan-forced or 180 degree oven – 350 degrees fahrenheit).
Place butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in bowl and beat until thick and creamy (about 2 minutes).
Fold through the yoghurt and flour until combined.
Arrange your sliced apples in the bottom of the bundt tin, sprinkling your layers with the sugar and cinnamon.
Then carefully dollop your cake batter on top and smooth out to cover to the edges.
Place in the preheated oven and cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Check your cake by poking a skewer into the centre at 25 minutes. If it comes out clean it is ready. Leave in a little longer if batter still clings to skewer.
Cool in tin for five minutes, then give it a shake to loosen it and invert onto a serving plate. Resist picking off any of that delicious apple, even though I know you’ll want to. Fulfillment is mere moments away!
Topping:
Melt butter and brush over the warm cake. Then mix sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over top of cake. Let cake cool.
Travels well for taking to friends’ houses! Enjoy, and please let me know how it turned out.
PS – If you’re aiming to impress, and want to use this as a dessert cake, serve warm with ice-cream. This goes REALLY well with salted caramel ice-cream… Your guests will gobble it all up and think you a kitchen genius. 🙂
