I wish I had made the apple cake earlier, but I’m SO GLAD I made it when I did! It made for the best dessert we’ve had in a while … fresh baked, almost steaming hot, a cake which unbelievingly delivered perfect light as cloud slices. I added a scraped vanilla bean to the batter, and flaked almonds on top. Despite the cake going through 2 LONG power outages, it still came out slam dunk delicious! That was the first time I made it. I decided to make it again a few days ago, this time as petit fours in individual dessert rings {from my little shop in Old Delhi}, pictured above.Guess what? Yes, power outage again!! Felt like I was on a mission to test this particular cake to its limits. I do bake a lot, an understatement maybe, and rarely face power outages these days. Not this instance though. The cake won the ‘battle of power outage’ again. Everything about Marie Helen’s Apple Cake is wonderful & well balanced – the fruit, the texture, the sweetness, the lightness; above all the power to satisfy. It’s a designated winner in my book; one which I will make over and over again.
I’m pretty sure most of you have baked it in the last few months. If like me, you haven’t, the time is now. Do yourself a favour. Been reading about it on just about every blog under the sun since Dorie’s new book‘Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours’ hit the stands. Saw a zillion folk bake it for the French Fridays with Dorie group, and most came out with a wonderful review. I wonder what kept me from baking it sooner?Then Pamela mentioned it over lunch at the French Pastry FestivalsLe Cordon Blue workshop, singing praises of it. I had it on my mind ever since. Dreamt of it that night, yes I have ‘sweet dreams’. I knew it was what I wanted to make for dessert the afternoon as my nephew was coming over for lunch. Life isn’t that easy, and my menu was based on bakes… Chicken, Mushroom & Roasted Pepper Juliene, Buttermilk Cluster Bread and an apple cake. I managed to do all of this at breakneck speed as the power was horribly erratic. Each time I popped the cake in, blink, power cut. It baked in 3 20 minute intervals, with gaps of an hour in between, still came out fabulous. By the time lunch was served, it had baked for the 3rd time … resulting in a nice warm cake for dessert. I let it sit for 10 minutes in the tin, before slicing it.
What a charmer the cake is. Elegant, fuss free, light, delicately flavoured … in one word PERFECT! Very simple to make too. I did read some reviews on Epicurious about increasing flour because of pooling butter etc, but that didn’t happen with me. It was well set and firm after an hour of intermittent baking, and even though I used a 9″ tin instead of an 8″ one, it still looked quite good. I think flaked almonds added a nice touch to the top, and yes, the scraped vanilla bean added beautiful flavour throughout. Vanilla bean is now my favourite baking ingredient and I am so glad India grows some of the finest vanilla beans now. I have had the pleasure of receiving a box of Ecopsice Bourbon vanilla beans from Mia, and they are excellent.
Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake
Minimally adapted from Epicurious Recipe by Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large apples {if you can, choose 4 different kinds}
2 large eggs
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
1 vanilla bean,scraped
1/4 cup slivered almonds
100gms unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Method:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 180C. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan, or 12 individual dessert rings bottoms lined/sealed with aluminum foil. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put the springform/ or dessert rings on it.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.
Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1- to 2-inch chunks {cut them slightly smaller for individual bakes}.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and scarped vanilla bean.
Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter.
Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it’s coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan/rings and poke it around a little with the spatula so that it’s evenish. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds.
Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes. {Individual dessert rings baked for about 30 minutes}.
Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. {Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren’t any apples stuck to it.}
Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature.
If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish.
Serving: The cake can be served warm or at room temperature, with or without a little softly whipped, barely sweetened heavy cream or a spoonful of ice cream. Marie-Hélène’s served her cake with cinnamon ice cream and it was a terrific combination. {The cake reheats very well too in the microwave}
