The Apple Of My Eye

My earliest memories from childhood are of waiting patiently at the table for my mother to finish folding the flour into a large bowl full of hand-beaten eggs and sugar and butter, with an old fashioned wooden spoon. She would then tip the batter into a pan and leave generous amounts of it in the bowl for my brother and I to lick clean. Those were the days when salmonella poisoning was unheard of and so as they say ignorance is bliss! Over the years we must have licked countless bowls of cake batter and cookie dough without once falling sick.

My children live in a different world. They have never eaten raw cake batter and I feel sorry  that they will never experience that divine rich gooey goodness. I try hard to replicate my near perfect childhood for my children and so I bake a lot. I have been baking since I was a child and so it is one of those activities that doesn’t require much thought and planning. I find the process very reassuring and comforting. 

Needless to say my family eats a lot of cake! 

Two years ago when my younger daughter was born, we were told that she had several food allergies. She was severely allergic among other things to milk protein and soy. Thankfully over the past couple of years her body has learnt to tolerate milk if it is baked. This has opened up a world of possibilities for her and me!

The other day her teacher at play-school told me to send a slice of cake as they were going to celebrate a birthday at school and she wouldn’t be able to eat the store bought cake. I was one happy mummy when I went to pick her up and saw her polishing off the cake I sent for her. I am glad she can have some semblance of a normal life despite her allergies. 

I want to share with you the recipe for the cake I made. It is one of her favourites and mine too. I love the flavour of Apple Pie that this cake has and often one piece is just not enough. So here goes, Dutch Apple Cake adapted from Rachel Allen’s recipe. 

Ingredients:

2 eggs at room temperature (I use organic eggs since they are often larger)

175 g caster sugar (also called breakfast sugar)  plus 3 tsp extra for sprinkling

85 g Amul salted butter

75 ml slim milk

125g plain flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I also sometimes use cinnamon sugar)

2-1/4 tsp baking powder

1 large cooking apple or 2 small ones

20cm x 20cm square cake tin

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and line the bottom and sides of the tin with parchment paper
2. Use an electric whisk to whisk the eggs, larger quantity of caster sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until mixture is thick and mousse like. This takes about 7 minutes or so.
3. Melt butter in a saucepan with the milk, then pour into the egg mixture while beating constantly
4. Sift in the flour, cinnamon and baking powder and fold gently but firmly till all the lumps of flour are gone and the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the tin
5. peel, core and slice the apples into thin rings and arrange the rings on top of the batter. Now sink them all using a fork. Make sure the batter smooths over and covers all the apple rings.
6. Sprinkle the remaining sugar on top and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes till the top is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
8. let it cool in tin, overturn onto wire rack and then cut into squares when completely cool

This cake is absolutely yummy with some vanilla bean ice cream!