Apple Cake

There is still no spring in sight, at least here in Michigan; we get a teaser here and there, but the heat is still running, and the birds are still hiding in the trees, confused… Well, at least I managed to get some spring on my table, by making a fruit cake with some spring tone to it. I got the recipe for this cake from my late mother in law, and it’s my husband’s favorite. Happy Easter to all who celebrate this weekend!

Apple Cake
5-6 medium apples (Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Red Rome, McIntosh)
Some ground walnuts to fill the apples
Some vanilla sugar to sprinkle

Biscuit:
4 eggs
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp oil
4 heaping tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cream:
1 1/3 cup milk
3 tbsp sugar
1 fruit pudding powder (cook & serve kind), strawberry or some other kind
4 oz (1 stick) butter or margarine, room temperature

Make the cream first. Mix pudding powder, sugar, and some milk (out of those 1 1/3 cups) until there are no lumps. Boil rest of the milk, reduce heat, and gradually, but quickly add the pudding mixture, stir fast, and cook for a minute until it thickens. It will be very thick. Transfer to a mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap so the skin wouldn’t form on the top. Cool to room temperature, then with a hand mixer, mix in the butter (or margarine) with some powdered sugar ( I have added only about 1 ½ tbsp).

While waiting for pudding to cool, preheat oven to 395° F. Peel, and core apples, and trim them if necessary so they fit nicely in a 9 inch spring form pan. You can use 5 in a circle, or 6 with one in the middle, depending how big the apples are. Fill them with ground walnuts, just as much can fit, don’t over pack, then sprinkle the tops with vanilla sugar. No worries if some walnuts fall into the pan, it’s all good, and it will be baked in for a better cake.

Bake apples for about 15-20 minutes, really depends on which apples you picked; just don’t over bake them, they have some more baking to do when you pour the biscuit mixture over them. So, when they just started softening in the oven (check often), pour the biscuit mixture over them, and do it slowly, making sure you coated each apple. Reduce the heat to 375° F. The biscuit will rise to the height of apples. Bake for about 20 minutes. When it’s nice golden color, check with a toothpick to see if it’s done. Let it cool to room temperature.

When cooled, flip it upside down onto a cake platter, spread the cream evenly over the top, and frost generously with whipped cream. I use powdered whipped cream, because I can control the consistency of it, and I prefer it’s taste over heavy whipping cream. Cool in fridge, and enjoy!

Hazelnut Torte - Paganini

Hello, my dear foodies! Thank you for all your kind words, and support in my time of absence. I am very busy, but will be dropping by more, hopefully! Today is my daughter's B-Day, and I wanted to share with you this wonderful cake I made for her. Happy Birthday baby!

Hazelnut Torte (Paganini)

First make the two fillings.
Chocolate filling:
5 egg yolks, and 1 whole egg
50 g/1.75 oz dark chocolate
150g/ 5.25 oz sugar
250g/ about 9 oz butter or margarine, unsalted

Mix egg yolks, egg, and sugar until nicely incorporated, and then cook, with chocolate, in a double boiler. Cool down completely, and then add butter, or margarine cut into thin slices, and mix until smooth. Let it sit in the fridge until needed.

Vanilla filling:
4 egg yolks
5 Tbs corn starch
1 vanilla sugar (9g/0.32 oz)
6 Tbs sugar
0.7 l/ 3 cups milk
0.5l/2 cups whipped cream, whipped + 1 stabilizer
(I use the whipped cream powder, 3 x (40g/1.41oz) with about 1 ½ cups milk)

Mix egg yolks, vanilla sugar, sugar, and corn starch with about half cup milk (taken from the 3 cups). Let the remainder of milk boil, and when it comes to boil, pour in the mixture, and stir constantly until nice and thick. Cool down completely, and then gradually add the whipped cream, whipped with stabilizer. Vanilla cream, when cooled may be very tough to mix, and blending the whipped cream in can be a bit challenging, so add the whipped cream, mix a little, then cool again, and mix some more until smooth. If you mix it in one round, you will find that it can heat up, and become runny! Thanks to Jenn, I am making these corrections.

For the base:
10 egg whites
280g/ about 10 oz sugar
280g/ about 10 oz roasted, finely ground hazelnuts
2 Tbsp baking cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 395 F. Mix egg whites until stiff, slowly adding sugar, then hazelnuts with cocoa powder. Bake in a large spring form pan (8"), or a square 9”x13” baking pan. Either use parchment paper, or grease the dish before baking. Baking time depends on your oven, check often. As usual, it is done when the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool down the cake, then poke it all over, and soak (but not to much) with milk. Put the cake on a stand of your choice, then put the spring form ring part back on (or around it, you know), and then put the fillings, that’s how you get perfect layers, and everything is kept in place, and evenly spread. When ready to serve, or giveaway (yeah, right), you just do the finishing touch. Fist top it with the chocolate filling, then vanilla, then decorate as you wish; whipped cream on the top works the best, but you can also sprinkle the top with coarse ground hazelnuts.

This cake is a true bite of heaven, prepare it to compliment a simple dinner! Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Coolinarika.

Apple Pudding Cake

This cake is rather simple. I know, I know, I always say that! But it is, really! You don’t even need a recipe, just use your favorite yellowcake/sponge cake recipe. Then you cook apples ( like 3 medium/large ) in 2 cups of water, and you thicken it all with corn starch, sugar, food color if you like, and maybe even some strawberry extract. Usually, I just buy one bag Dr. Oetker strawberry pudding powder, and it’s all in there, except sugar. I use 5 Tbsp. I’m just saying---it is easy!

My friends, and I have made this one a lot in refugee camp over a decade ago, and it brings back some good memories. Yes, good memories! : ) Memories of friendship, and fun, because it was our teenage years, and sharing one stove between 7 families was not stopping us from having our cake, and eating it too!!! Minus the whipped cream : )

Ok, if you want to try, this time I have used a recipe for the yellow cake from one of my cook books, and instead of just store bought pudding (starch), I have used starch and so on...

It is approved by my six year old to be yummy, and pretty too :)

For the Yellow Cake
(adapted from The Ultimate Book of Baking, Martha Day)

½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
Mix it until nice and fluffy, then add 2eggs,and mix well.
Fold in previously mixed:
1 cup flour
1Tsp baking powder
1/8 Tsp of salt
Grease the spring form pan, and spoon the batter in. Bake @350 F until just right : )


Apple Pudding:

Cook apples (3 medium/large, peeled, cored, and cut up into cubes) in a 1 ¾ cups water. Mix ¼ cup water with 3 Tbsp of starch, 5 Tbsp of sugar (or more if you like it really sweet, I like it just refreshing), couple of drops of red food color, and about 1/4 Tsp strawberry or raspberry extract. Mix it in boiling apples, after they have cooked for like 10 min.
With that done, sprinkle your cake with some milk, to make it more moist, pour the apple pudding over, and cool it down completely.
Serve with whipped cream please! :)