Gateau Aux Pommes, Apple Cake

Gateau Aux Pommes … Comforting Apple Cake!

“When the night has come, And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won’t be afraid, No I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”
Ben E. King

These are lyrics of one of my favourite songs, the words, the tone, the tenor … all pure comfort! I’m sorry it’s been a while and I have to admit life seems to have got the better of me. Summer has hit us splat on, the kids now on summer vacation and the headless chicken dance doesn’t seem to end. Is it something with me being disorganised, or is it just a sign of the times … so much to do and so little time!The last 2 weeks whizzed by getting visas organised etc {we need visas on our passports to go practically anywhere, except HKG maybe!!} Heat and dust, electricity power cuts, teens at their trying best, parents at their coping best or worst {still trying to figure that last one out} … and then the desire to blog! Nothing adds up to a balanced equation…

We put the kids on a flight to Dubai for 5 days where they are being spoilt silly by their sweet cousin. I figured I had 5 ‘whole‘ days to catch up, and had grand plans. 2 days are gone and I’ve hit panic mode. Nothing done as I am still trying to get back my lost energy … the heat saps you of most, and bringing up kids drains the rest.Getting to the foodie bit now. I haven’t baked for  a few days with all this running around, so I’ve dug into my archives for an apple cake that I made last month, one I meant to post, but didn’t quite get there. It’s a minimally adapted recipe from Tartlette, one that spells COMFORT! It’s like an old fashioned cake, almost crossing into a steamed pudding, and holds wonderful old world charm.

Of the cake Helene says, “I am pretty sure that most French people reading are familiar with the “Gateau aux Pommes 5-4-3-2-1” that the brand Tupperware® introduced during home demonstrations of their products. A very simple, very unassuming and particularly delicious apple cake, soft and moist all the way through. It was especially known for its creamy butter and sugar topping forming a tempting thin crust while baking.“

I made it with apples. Possibly it should work well with peaches, maybe apricots too. I skipped the cardamom in it as I’m not a huge fan of cardamom in bakes, but you can add a tsp in with the flour. You could sprinkle the top with slivered almonds like I did here, and also for Marie Helen’s Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan ‘Around My French Table’ . That and a dusting of sugar prettied it up!!I made several small cakes in ramekins lined with cupcake liners {to aid easy removal} and a 4″ cake in a spring-form tin. This was indeed a simple, comforting, unassuming apple cake, delicious and moist, with the promise of old world charm. A couple of tablespoons of unsweetened low fat cream make it even more addictive!

[print_this]Recipe: Gateau Aux Pommes {Apple Cake}
 

Summary: A simple, comforting, unassuming apple cake, delicious and moist. A couple of tablespoons of unsweetened low fat cream make it even more addictive! Recipe adapted minimally from Tartlette.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients for the cake:

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/4 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup vanilla sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup low fat milk
  • 1/4 cup low fat cream
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
  • 2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

Ingredients for the topping:

  • 5 1/2 tbsp {80g} unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup vanilla sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 vanilla bean scraped {or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract}

Method for cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 9″ round tin, or line several small ramekins with cupcake liners. Place them on a large baking sheet.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Reserve.
  3. In another bowl, whisk the milk, low fat cream,oil, egg and scraped vanilla bean until just blended.
  4. Slowly pour the wet mix over the dry mix, mixing gently till fully incorporated {40-50 strokes}
  5. Pour batter into prepared baking tin/ramekins and arrange the apple slices over in a circular pattern.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes, and in the meantime prepare the topping.

Method for topping:

  1. Whisk the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla bean and egg and whisk again to blend.
  2. Remove the baked cakes from oven, leaving the oven on. Spread the creamy butter topping over the cakes, sprinkle with slivered almonds if desired.
  3. Return to oven and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

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Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

46 thoughts on “Gateau Aux Pommes … Comforting Apple Cake!”

  1. This is such a wonderful post! Dubai seems like such a foreign and exotic place to us. We almost moved there a few years ago for my husband’s job. Your photos are gorgeous. I am trying to figure out how to do diptychs. I have Mac which comes with iphoto but so far I can’t figure out how to do it. I got the 30 day trial for Aperture (for Macs) but it is confusing… Would you mind telling me what you use to make your diptychs? Good luck on your break! I understand, I have 2 teens myself!

    Reply

  2. i was looking for a nice cake to bake in ramekins! now that a regular recipe won’t work, but its nice to see one that’s actually bake in them and has come out so well 🙂

    Reply

  3. God I hate cooked apples as much as I hate the flavor of cinnamon but, I love peaches, could I replace apples with peaches?

    Reply

  4. I love apple in all desserts. It like it taste, more sweet and soft. Your cake looks excellent and I think that the touch of vanilla would be great! Thank you to sharing your dessert 🙂

    Reply

  5. Deeba I love apples always and this dessert look amazing and beauty!
    Have a nice Sunday dera, send you huggs, xxgloria

    Reply

  7. I’ve made the apple cake of Dorie Greenspan’s and it’s simplicity defied how wonderful it was. Truly wish I had a slice of this now…even more so wish I had a slice and a cup of coffee and we were sitting together and having a lazy day. Sounds good huh?

    Reply

  8. Hey there girl. Your kids are in Dubai with family and you bake. I got some appled though tart ones and I was looking for arecipe for them. Did you read my mind? 🙂

    Reply

  12. I saw one of the bloggers posted apple cake and you’re the second one. The apple cake looks so yummy and your photography is the best!

    Reply

  20. I guess I am both disorganized and also have too many things to do in too little time. And I would rephrase and say the ‘the kids sap most of my energy and the heat the rest”:-)) June- Where are u???

    Am not a huge fan of cooked apples or cinnamon both, guess can make this with some other fruit, and with that dollop of low fat cream!

    Reply

  22. Love, love cooked fruit in desserts, especially apples and pear…thanks for this brilliant recipe..I’m going to try it to re-create a german apple cake recipe I have (which is loaded with butter though) using oil instead of butter.

    When you say vanilla sugar, do you mean castor sugar or granulated sugar? I understand they work very differently in baking.

    Shilpa x

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your sweet words. I use granulated vanilla sugar Shilpa. I just place a couple of vanilla beans in a jar of sugar and keep topping it up as I use it.

      Reply

  28. Thanks for the cake recipe.I made it for my daughter and she absolutely loved it.Thanks.

    Reply

  29. lovely recipe done induvidually, Mmmm.., that’s interesting, my kids would love it, lovely clicks have a bit of rest and enjoy sometime off on your own..

    Reply

  30. Hang in there dear Deeba. I was super excited to hear of your travel plans, will email you a bit later tonight. I’d love to catch up!

    And needless to say, gorgeous food and photos as always. *Muah*

    Reply

  31. Each time I visit your blog, I love every single thing in it : pictures, recipe, story, colours, etc.. just magic! I love the individual servings! Great recipe. Thanks and have a lovely sunny day Deeba! xxxxxxxxx hugs to you 🙂
    Cheers

    Reply

  33. Thanks for this apple cake.It was really yummy.Please tell me how to bake a cake w/o eggs(my kid is allergic to egg).

    Reply

  36. The cake looks gorgeous, D! Glad you had a nice break with the kids on holiday. I so agree, planning vacations from here is a pain because of all the Visa hassles!

    P.S – I love the wireframe jug!

    Reply

  38. my first time here n’ i’m in awe of the recipes n’ snaps u have up here…..you make baking look so interesting….:)

    Reply

  39. Oh, Deeba! Your photos are so irresistible that just looking at them makes me want to eat the whole batch now! I love your presentation and talent to create so beautiful dessert! The vanilla pods in your photos are my favourite decoration you used there 🙂

    Reply

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