On the way back from Yorkshire in January we detoured off the M1 to visit a little café in Derby that I’d heard good things about. It was busy for a late weekday lunchtime, with just one table remaining -luckily for us! This café, Baked, has a bakery with shelves ladened with bread as well as a menu of homecooked breakfasts, lunch options and, of course, cake. Each day Victoria arrives at 5am and bakes the cake of the day. This is three hours after her husband arrives to bake the bread (he does leave the cafe earlier!). At the end of the day, whatever isn’t sold becomes part of her and her husband’s supper. I imagine they go to bed quite early! Whilst the cakes change regularly, on Saturday’s, she told me, she always makes her grandmother’s apple cake because people request it so much they have now come to expect it. I was delighted when she agreed to send me the recipe so I would have a chance to taste it for myself.
Last week I was given a bottle of
Hill Farm Rapeseed Oil to test out, so this seemed like the perfect excuse to make Victoria's apple cake! With the snow blowing in every direction outside this weekend, I stuck to the warmth of my kitchen and made the perfect treat for a far-too-cold March Saturday.
POLISH APPLE CAKE
Courtesy of Baked Café in Derby
Ingredients:
2 Bramley apples- peeled, cored and sliced.
3 tbs soft brown sugar
1 and a half tsp ground cinnamon
250g plain flour
350 g Caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda,
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 medium eggs
150g rapeseed oil
1 and half tsp vanilla extract
4 tbs freshly squeezed orange juice (NOTE: I found this was about the juice from one medium orange)
Instructions:
Grease and line an 8 inch, deep cake tin
Preheat oven to 170 fan oven
Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle over apples as you slice them.
Toss and set aside.
Add the flour, caster sugar, salt, eggs, rapeseed oil, vanilla extract and orange juice. Mix in a Kenwood/kitchen aid or a hand held mixer on low for 1 minute, then medium for 3 minutes.
Add the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and mix for one more minute.
Spoon 1/3 mix into tin, top with half the apples. Spoon next 1/3 of mixture on top and the rest of the apples on top of that. Finish with the last 1/3 of mixture.
Bake for 1hr 15 mins to 1hr 30 mins.
Check after 1hr 15 and if browning too quickly cover with foil.
Delicious warm with cream or custard.
Keeps well in an airtight container.
I have to say, it tastes pretty good cold as well. This is a lovely and moist cake and very simple to make. I’m not sure if the bubbling of the brown sugar mixture around the edges is normal but it tasted pretty good, giving an almost biscuity edge to the cake.
A perfect cake to enjoy over Easter when it’s likely you’ll want a break from chocolate!