An easy classic and delicious Vanilla Apple Cake made from scratch with fresh apples, topped with caramel sauce and pecans.
This month’s Sweet & Simple Bakes event, created by Rosie, of Rosie Bakes a ‘Peace” of Cake and Maria, of The Goddess’s Kitchen, called us to make a Vanilla Apple cake.
The recipe was simple, straightforward, a few ingredients and this time I followed the recipe as much as I could.
To start with I do not have a 20 cm springform tin, so I used my 26 cm tin which made a cake less high than it should be.
I did not have demerara sugar so I used crystal sugar instead and Starking delicious apples instead of Bramley.
The only change I made to the recipe was instead of adding all the apples on top, I used 1 1/2 apples on the base of the tin, on which I sprinkled some sugar and cinnamon, I emptied the batter on top and I put the remaining apples on top with some sugar and cinnamon.
My batter was so shallow that I could not poke the apples half way in, as instructed by Maria.
However the cake rose and covered the apples perfectly.
When it cooled, I turned it into a cake server, upside down.
The taste was absolutely amazing. My children loved it and could eat it all at once if I did not prevent them from eating it all.
Caramel Sauce
The idea of adding a caramel sauce on top with some pecans was mine, as I love it on top of apple pies or other desserts.
Instead of serving the apple cake dry, I prepared the caramel sauce which I poured on top of each serving with some crushed pecans on top.
The caramel sauce is a special touch, especially when serving guests.
Blog problems
On another note, this morning I had an e-mail from a friend saying that she could not open my site and when I checked it she was right. There was no site!
Although until late in the evening the site was running perfectly, I do not know why it collapsed.
I contacted my hosting company who have found out the problem and after a couple of hours we managed to restore the problem.
The whole problem nearly gave me a stroke and made me think that I would have lost at least one month’s hard work.
I tried to find out how I can back up my data and although it seems quite complicated, I shall devote as long time as necessary to learn how to do this.
Does any one of you know an easy way to do this?
After writing the post I found out that all my links are also not working and now I need to resolve that problem as well.
Vanilla Apple Cake
An easy classic and delicious Vanilla Apple Cake made from scratch with fresh apples, topped with caramel sauce and pecans.
Ingredients
- 250g / 9oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 250g / 9oz golden caster sugar (or normal caster sugar)
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 250g / 9oz self-raising flour
- 1 vanilla pod, split, seeds removed and reserved (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 3 small Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges (or any other type of cooking apple, if not apple of your choice)
- 2 tbsp Demerara sugar
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
For the caramel sauce
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 2 spoonfuls of lemon juice
- a few spoonfuls of water until the sugar gets wet
- 1 tsp butter or margarine
- 5 - 6 spoonfuls of light cream or milk
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter a 20cm/8inch spring form
tin, then line the base with baking paper. - Beat the caster sugar and butter together until the mixture turns pale
and fluffy. - Add the eggs, flour and vanilla seeds, then beat together quickly to
make a smooth batter. - Tip into the prepared tin, then lay the apple wedges on top, poking them halfway into the mix. Don't worry if the apples appear crowded - they'll shrink as they cook.
Sprinkle with the Demerara and cinnamon, then bake for 1 hour 5 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the sponge is risen and golden. - Leave to cool for a few minutes, then release the tin and cool the cake
completely on a wire rack.
Preparing the sauce
- In a non stick frying pan add sugar and wet it with water, add lemon
juice and stir until it turns brown. - Remove from the heat and mix in the butter and the cream.
- Mix for a few seconds and serve on top of the cake.
- Serve the cold sauce in a sauce boat with apple cake or other suitable
desserts. Or, spoon a little sauce over each serving of the dessert before
presenting it at the table.
Notes
I did not measure how much cream I added but I would say around 5 - 6
spoonfuls and if you add less or more I don't see any problem, so long as it retains it's dark colour.
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 435Total Fat 23gSaturated Fat 14gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 129mgSodium 336mgCarbohydrates 53gFiber 2gSugar 33gProtein 5g
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Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!
Sunshinemom
Sunday 7th of December 2008
The cake looks delicious, Ivy! I saw PG's blog and the caramel sauce looks good too. Will try that topping on one of my cakes soon!
PG
Friday 7th of November 2008
You know I tried your recipe of the caramel syrup with my own apple cake. It came out so good. Thanks a lot for the recipe! a very tempting cake though. Will be posting it soon on my blog.
precious moments
Tuesday 7th of October 2008
This cake is simply delicious.
sara angel
Thursday 2nd of October 2008
Your cake looks great and I love the caramel syrup and pecans on top. A nice little variation you've added :]
Lisa
Thursday 2nd of October 2008
It looks wonderful! I really like it with caramel and nuts.