french apple cake

Last three months were all about apples and mainly apple cakes.

This beauty is dad's simple upside down apple cake. Apples are baked almost until jelly like consistency and then tucked in sponge cake mixture and later on dressed up with generous amount of whipped cream. Pretty much favorite among youngsters. Pleasant and mild taste, no need to think just pure joy.

This dark one is my creation. Very easy to make and very easy to eat. Dangerous if home alone. It's a bit more complex texture compared to the upper one. Lots of chopped walnuts, lots of carob, whole wheat flour, grated apples. Anyways, one pan cake with chocolate glaze, room temperature. No need to refrigerate and tastes even better the day after. 

And revelation cake, french apple cake. 
Discovered while browsing trough Posie Harwood foodblog 600acres. Recipe was firstly adopted by David Lebovitz and can be found in archives on his blog, but for my creation I have used 6 large apples (as suggested by Posie) and eau de vie instead of white rum. You might be afraid about amount of used apples compared to batter, and in this case you can use 4 large apples and follow Davids recipe. Both 'versions' work perfectly. Taste is very special and in a sense batter texture reminds me of clafoutis. I would say that alcohol is a key ingredient for this cake so you should use good quality one. As I didn't have white rum I used excellent eau de vie (fruit schnaps made of pears).

French Apple Cake

from David Labovitz and Posie Harwood

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
6 large apples, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp eau de vie 

1 tsp vanilla extract
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (115g), melted and cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and cover springform pan (20-23cm) with baking paper. 

Peel and core the apples, then dice them into rather big chunks.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat the eggs until foamy and pale, then whisk in the sugar, eau de vie and vanilla extract. Add half of the flour mixture and stir in half of the melted butter.

Add the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter. 

Fold in the apple chunks using spatula and scrape them into the cake pan and smooth the top. 

Bake the cake for about 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Let the cake cool for few minutes before you remove the sides of the cake pan.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or by itself. 
 
Bon Appétit!