Vanilla Apple Cake
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 ½ 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 teaspoon 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 tablespoon Demerara sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the caramel sauce
- ½ cup of sugar
- 2 spoonfuls of lemon juice
- a few spoonfuls of water until the sugar gets wet
- 1 teaspoon 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!
Delicious looks cake. I love that you served it with the syrup.
Yeah somtimes when i bake, i also don't have the correct pan and then i too improvise.
I love all kinds of apple cakes, especially teacakes! Nice touch with the caramel sauce too. Your site seems to be working fine and the links look like they're working too. (is there a way to stop that music player from playing automatically?)
Apple cake is very seasonal right now sis. I agree with Peter, your site seems to be working fine now. Perhaps it was just a glitch in WordPress at the time:D
The cake looks very moist and these flavours are fitting for autumn.
Oh my god, Ivy.... could you adopt me, please? I can behave as a kid... could you adopt me? What a marvellous tart!!!! Gosh, and I still have to start baking. Well, if the sky doesn't fall on my head, I will start this week with something simple ;D
Oh this sounds just perfect...what a wonderful treat 🙂
That is one heaven of a cake! The lucky tummies who got to eat it. I envy them!
Ivy, now that's apple cake with a twist! I can even smell the caramel too! I also want to thank you so much for the award. You really made my day!
Núria count me in too... I'm like an angel when comes to food..hahahhaa.
About butter vs margarine... firstly, they (the specialists) warned consumers that butter is bad, real, real bad for health. Now, they said butter is good compared to margarine! I feel that just because butter is an animal product, it contains cholesterol and margarine is non-animal product, doesn't have. Therefore, margarine supposed to be better. I do know butter is excellent source of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D, E, K and it's natural product. These are not found to any degree in margarine. Margarine is chemical-extracted refined vegetable oil, contains trans-fatty acids which raise LDL levels.
Due to the recent research and issuance of warnings and regulations about trans fatty acids, many margarine manufacturers had reformulated their products. Is compulsory that food manufacturers disclose on food labels how much trans fats (monounsaturated or polyunsaturated) a product contains (eg chips, crackers,etc) In my country, I saw lately, several brands of potato chips had 'No Trans Fat' indicated on their packaging.
In my family, we used butter more. I don't use margarine in my baking or cooking either. If I have to buy margarine, it must be olive based. One of my friends who visits me frequently can't take canola, nuts and seed based margarines. It caused inflame to her arthritis problems.
Overall, general rule of thumb, everything should be in moderation. We need to read labels of our food more diligent nowadays and to teach our young generations as well.
Lovely cake - we enjoyed it as well - I've made it thrice this month and it was a huge hit each time.
Cake in between apple layers is a nice idea.
I make a spiced apple cake which I have posted on my blog.
And as you can see, Ivy, your blog seems to be back to normal.
Hi everybody. I'm sorry if I gave you a hard time today with my site. The problems seem to have been resolved (I am keeping my fingers crossed).
Pixen thanks for all the information given. Well, I'll have to wait until my next check up and see were the levels of my cholesterol are.
Cake looks moist n delicious.
What a perfect cake! Some of my very favorite flavours in there.
Ivy, what a great looking cake! I love apple in baked goods, and haven't made an apple cake in ages. I'll definitely be trying this out. Yum!
+Jessie
a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse
apple-caramel-pecan, killer combination!
PS: I try to bake healthier cakes, without butter eggs and sugar, when it's a cake for family consumption and I know I'll have loads. I use organic oil or organic non-dairy margerine without hydrogenated fats, fruit and natural sugars (eg agave syrup, mollasses, maple, honey etc) When it's a special occasion and I know lots of people are going to share the cake so we'll only have a slice each, then I can indulge with naughty ingredients like cream, butter, caramel etc