The first challenge was only for half a weekend, so it only included one cookbook, “Haggis, Whisky & Co.” A Scottish cookbook (written in German and published in Austria) where each recipe goes along with a poem by Robert Burns.
I got the book for my birthday from Mick, so I figured that’s why he made me try it first. Maybe it was because he missed Haggis. Poor him, I wasn’t going to make that… 🙂 Since I had only one cookbook for this weekend, I decided to make a main course and a dessert, starting with the latter. To actually pick one was not that easy. First of all, there aren’t many recipes in this book to begin with – all of them being assembled in menus following a theme.
Venison and other autumn specialities are a bit hard to come by in the middle of the summer, and so are some of the fish specialities you can get in Scotland. Not as fresh at least. One of the first recipes had a caramelized apple cake in it – so that obviously caught my eye. On reading the recipe I realized it was much like the French Tarte Tartin, and I fell in love with that in Paris a few weeks ago. The only ingredient I was missing were eggs, so the choice was easy!
The cake was from the “Bill o’Fate, O my Luve’s like a red, red Rose” menu. A menu for lovers. 🙂
I didn’t follow the recipe by the letter, here’s what I actually ended up doing:
Caramelised Apple Cake
4 Apples
Juice from half a lemon
3 Eggs
250g Sugar
175ml Oil (something which no to little taste)
175g Flour
1 Packet Baking Powder (approx. 8g)
A bit of Baking Soda
1 Packet Vanilla Sugar (approx. 8g)
50g Butter
Preheat oven to 175C. Slice and de-seed apples and pour lemon juice over it, so they won’t turn brown. Whisk the eggs and 150g of the sugar until it’s foamy, then slowly add the oil. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla sugar and then add it to the egg-sugar mix. Stir thoroughly until it’s smooth.
Heat butter and add the 100g of sugar. Mix thoroughly and caramelise it on low heat until it becomes a thick mass. If sugar doesn’t dissolve, add some of the lemon juice from the apple slices.
Put baking paper in a spring form. Pour caramel in it and evenly cover the bottom. Put the apple slices on top of the caramel and then the dough over the top.
Bake for 45 min at 175C. Let cool for 15 min, then overturn the cake. Goes well with vanilla ice cream and coffee 🙂
I think I used a bit too much baking soda, so I changed the recipe accordingly. The dough was superbly light, fluffy and moist, whilst the apples started to get a bit of a crunch to it. Once the cake has cooled down properly, the caramel will get even crunchier. I think it tasted really super and I also like the slightly rustic taste to it.
August 10, 2013 at 8:43 pm
My verdict:
Fresh from the oven, this was a delight! The sponge was substantial, yet surprisingly fluffy and light, with a toffee-like stickiness at the top and edges from the caramelised apples. As, for the apples, their flavour managed to shine through the caramel flavour and retained their texture – I think it could have been easy for them to turn mushy, but not in this case. Leave it to sit for a few hours and the cake changes character a little, as the caramel hardens, leaving the outside edges slightly crunchy, adding a new texture to what is already a wonderful treat. Whilst a little cream, ice-cream or custard would be a suitable accompaniment to this, it was already so moist that it really didn’t need anything else. The challenge is off to a great start!