Sadie’s birthday apple cake

I adore this recipe, adapted from a school recipe book from Western Australia. It’s a very moist, crumbly cake that is delicious at room temperature and gets better on the second day after it’s made.

• makes

  2 cakes

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  50 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 6 apples, preferably a sour variety such as Granny Smith
• 200 g (1 cup) demerara or raw sugar (or a mixture of caster and brown)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• few drops vanilla extract
• 125 ml (½ cup) extra virgin olive oil
• 200 g walnut kernels, broken
• 250 g (2 cups) self-raising flour
• pinch salt
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
• Icing sugar and thick cream, to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and line two 20 cm round cake tins or use loaf tins. 

2. Peel and core the apples, then cut into a dice roughly the size of a 5 cent piece. Place in a large bowl and add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, oil and walnuts. Sift in the flour, salt and cinnamon and stir to make a smooth batter.

3. Divide the batter between the tins, then bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer withdraws clean (the time will change accordingly if you use a single large tin or different shaped tins). Allow to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of cream.  

Photography by Tim Thatcher

Matthew Evans is back in his brand-new series of Gourmet Farmer, 8pm Thursday nights on SBS and on SBS On Demand.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.