Buy it here (I've also just discovered there's a third book! And I've just bought that too..)
This is their second book and both contain such great recipe ideas at lower calories. This is especially true when looking at their dessert ideas. Their carrot cake has become my new favourite recipe (I'll post that recipe at a later time) and I decided to try the apple cake in this book as a friend told me he had a particular liking for anything apple. I was super impressed the first time I made it, as were my guests that I presented it to. I made it for the second time last week and it come out super again so I know it isn't a fluke! This particular cake serves 12 and comes out at 229 calories per slice, which really isn't bad!
So, if you'd like to have a go (I recommend it!) here's what you need:
- Frylight (or any oil spray, but I live by this stuff, so I would recommend investing)
- 200ml semi-skimmed milk
- 100ml sunflower oil (I used vegetable and noticed no difference)
- 750g apples (you should use cooking apples if you can, but I actually never have)
- Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (this is roughly equal to the half a lemon, squeeze as much out as possible)
- 250g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground mixed spice
- 2 eggs (they say large, I always use medium, weighing about 60g each)
- 100g brown sugar, plus 2 tbsp
- 1/2 tsp icing sugar
If you like baking or have baked before, you'll probably have most of these ingredients in the house, which is useful! If not, nothing here is very expensive, so this is also quite a cheap cake to make.
What you need to do:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5. Line a 23cm cake tin with baking parchment & mist with oil
- Peel the apples, cut in quarters and remove the cores. Cut in thin slices (you need 500g prepared weight) and toss in a bowl with the lemon juice & zest
- Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon & mixed spice in a bowl until even
- Whisk the eggs, the 100g sugar, milk and oil in a separate bowl with a hand whisk until combined
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use the whisk to break up any lumps. Toss in the lemony apples until evenly mixed and pour into the prepared tin.
- Shake the tin a little to make the top even. A good tip at this point for any cake is to drop it flat a few feet from the counter, as if you had just picked it up and it was hot. This helps to take the air out and gives a light texture.
- Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar evenly on top.
- Bake in the oven until golden brown & well risen. The guide cooking time is an hour, but I find about 1 hour 15 minutes is better. It may just be my oven, so check every 5 minutes after 1 hour as passed. Stick a skewer in the middle and see how it comes out, although they say it should be dry, this cake is very moist because of the apples, so the skewer always has something on. If you look closely though, you'll be able to see if it is uncooked cake mixture or cake crumbs on the skewer. Obviously you want cake crumbs.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes before taking it out of the tin and then dust with icing sugar using a sieve.
And eat!
I actually took this picture (and the following ones) a day after because we couldn't wait to eat it, ha! The cake keeps for about 3 days, wrapped in foil & kept in the fridge. You can also cut it up and freeze it for up to 3 months, make sure to wrap it tightly. Defrost it and eat it at room temperature/warmed at low in the microwave.
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I used it as a belated birthday cake for my friend Milo, who is the same friend who confessed his love to apples and was the reason I decided to first try out this cake! He was absolutely chuffed, especially after a few candles and a badly sung solo of happy birthday by yours truly! What can I say, I try.
Happy Birthday for last week Milo & thank you for letting me have this picture!
Let me know if you try it out and what you think!
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