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Dutch Apple Cake

This is very much an apple first and cake after kind of cake for those of you who claim ‘not to love cake’ (myself included). The spongey cake layer (which is very lovely by the way) serves as the vessel to transport all those thin layered apple slices strewn with sugar and cinnamon to your mouth.
Before you start
As with most baking, it’s best to have your ingredients at room temperature. When you’re combining the wet ingredients for the cake batter, you don’t want to be adding cold milk or a cold egg to hot melted butter – unless you want scrambled eggs or re-solidified butter lumps
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Servings: 8 slabs
Author: Hangry Miss

Equipment

  • Cake tin measuring 30x20cm (or equivalent) 12 x 8 in

Ingredients

  • 30 g melted butter cooled (1 oz)
  • 165 g self-raising flour 6 oz
  • teaspoon baking powder
  • 80 g caster sugar 3 oz
  • 1 egg room temperature
  • 120 ml milk room temperature (4 oz)

Topping

  • 600 g about 5 medium Granny Smith apples (1lb 5 oz) (Note 1)
  • 30 g butter 1 oz
  • 50 g granulated sugar 2 oz
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180C (fan-forced/convection) /392F
  • Assembling the wet and dry cake batter ingredients
  • Melt your butter directly into a heatproof screw-top jar (without the lid). Allow it to cool slightly.
  • Grease the base and sides of a cake tin really well with butter. Line the base (only) with parchment
  • Weigh the flour, baking powder and sugar directly into a sieve over a large bowl. Sieving them serves to incorporate air and combine them at the same time
  • Add the egg and milk to the melted butter. Put the lid on properly and shake until blended
  • Leave the wet and dry batter ingredients separate for now while you prep your apple slices

Prepping the apple

  • Cut each apple in quarters, peel off the skin using a paring knife, cut out the core and cut thinly/use a mandolin. Slices should be consistently sliced , about 2mm thick. Keep each sliced quarter grouped together (Note 2)

Putting it together

  • Shake up the screw-top jar ingredients again and pour over the dry ingredients. Combine gently with a silicone spatula
  • Pour and spread into the prepared cake tin. A wet spatula will make light work of spreading out the batter evenly. The batter creates a thin layer and is quite thick – spread it out as evenly as possible
  • Melt the butter in the microwave and brush over the apple slices and over any exposed batter
  • Cover with the apple slices in rows (Note 3)
  • Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle over the top
  • Bake for about 40 mins (turning the cake tin halfway though), until a thin knife inserted between apple slices and through the middle of the cake comes out clean and the sugar on the top has all melted
  • Allow to cool in the tin slightly before loosening all around the edge and shaking out carefully

Notes

1. This amount will likely leave you with leftovers. Delicious eaten dipped in some spare cinnamon sugar. Chef’s treat.
2. Depending on how fast you work, the apple slices may brown slightly. Don’t worry about this. The cinnamon sugar and the baking will mask this, and it won’t affect flavour
3. I grab each sliced apple quarter and fan out slightly like a hand of cards. You can be as OCD as you like with this; it will all taste good. You can straighten them out, get rid of any little scrappy pieces of apple, ensure the slices are fanned evenly