My mum has been going crazy making this super simple apple cake - its really delicious, highly recommended.
Its moist, not that sweet but has a lovely cinnamon/sugar topping.
I could eat it for breakfast with a strong coffee!

The recipe is from the Tui Garden website
[www.tuigarden.co.nz]



2 eggs
1/2 C sugar
125g melted butter
1 C self raising flour
Rind of 1 lemon
3 apples, peeled and chopped up
Cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling on top

Turn oven onto bake 180 degrees celsius
Beat the eggs and the sugar
Melt the butter, cool and add to the eggs and sugar
Add the self raising flour, lemon rind and apples to the mixture and mix to combine
Pour into a greased ring cake tin
Sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon and sugar
Bake for 30-40 minutes

Vanessa

Definitely going to try this one. I love easy-to-make no-fuss cakes. I'm slowly gathering a collection of the type of cake/dessert that can be whipped up in minutes. Doesn't matter if it takes a bit longer to cook. I can wait!

Its really really delicious and yep - SUPER easy!
Vanessa

Yummy...gonna have a try...

I found pretty much the same recipe in an old handwritten cookbook that I have here.
I have now made it a few times and have just posted it as a recipe with photo.
Definitely making no claims that it is mine but it is a good recipe worth sharing.
The hazelnuts on top add some lovely crunch and flavour.

Definitely going to try this.

I just saw your Apple cake today Helen and thought it was very similar too.

I love it how the easy recipes are sometimes the best and also love that dodgy measuring skills dont make much difference to the end result.
Adding the nuts sounds like a delicious addition though.

Vanessa

I've made Vanessa's apple cake and it's so easy to make and tastes great. It's very similar to a recipe from the NZ Gardener magazine which I have been making for quite some time. I changed Vanessa's topping though. I mix the cinnamon and sugar with a little melted butter and add a couple of tablespoons of ground almonds. It adds a bit of a streusel like crunch. Also, next time I will make sure that I chop the apple smaller than I did to make sure they are cooked properly. Great recipe.

I made it a couple of weeks ago and it was very good, but like Chris the apple was a little undercooked and I too will cut the apple smaller next time. Great recipe though, thank you!
Regards,
Dawn.

I also made the cake and found it so easy and very nice. It also keeps so well. With only two of us in the house during the time I would cut a couple of slices, then cover the rest and store it in the fridge. It remained moist until we finished it after several days. I don't have a ring tin so I just used my usual round one, knowing it would have to cook a little longer but kept checking. I didn't measure how small I chopped the apples but they were well cooked without being mushy.

When my mum makes it, its a little different each time.
She's even made it with tinned peaches - just drain them well.

Its quite funny as she tells us shes going to make an apple cake for us and we never get the whole cake - LOL she must eat some after she cooks it EVERY time

Vanessa

Vanessa that is so funny.
My family raved about it.

Vanessa, she's sample testing it to make sure it's up to standard to gift to you...

My thoughts, exactly, J1. Either that, or as we used to say, Cook's Privilege.

Agree with others - that is a lovely cake. I made it last night for dessert and had it with whipped cream.

Just one comment, I note that in Helen's version of the recipe it says to use a 26cm ring tin. When I looked at the recipe I couldn't see how the volume of ingredients ( 2 eggs and 1 cup of flour), could possibly fill a tin that size. Indeed the mixture fitted perfectly in my 20cm (non ring) tin.

Regards,

Barbara Anne

I agree Barbara Anne, I made it today any my 20cm diameter ring tin was the perfect size. Regarding apple chunk size, I cut it to about 1cm cubes and they the perfect texture. It was cooked when the timer went off at 30 min, so I'd check sooner next time.

Barbara Anne, don't forget the tube in the centre of a ring tin takes up a lot of space, therefore a 26cm size is probably about right and exactly why your 20cm non-ring tin was also perfect. The only ring-'tin' I have is a microwave one from days gone by, and the central hole measures 5cm across.

Conicidentally, I went shopping yesterday for a ring-tin as the The Warehouse has baking items on sale. There wasn't a ring-tin among them, unfortunately. We also have a variety store here, but their ring tins didn't look suitable: they looked as if they were enammeled which I don't think would stand up to the heat of an oven. Perhaps they were jelly moulds as they were fluted. My question is, can I use a suitably sized small glass jar in the middle of my baking tin, or will the glass break with the heat? I searched my house for something tube-like in ceramic but I don't seem to have anything like that.

Lorna, I suggest that for a ring tin you get a good quality heavy aluminium bundt tin. They are quite expensive but will last forever and as long as you oil/butter the interior nothing will stick. Their other virtue is that the cake is so decorative that you don't need to ice it or decorate it. I often butter mine then coat it with flaked almonds before putting batter in, and the effect is lovely. I also use mine for Bavarian Creams and other desserts set with gelatine.

Lorna, I wouldn't use glass but I've used tins. Just keep a tin the next time you use tinned tomatoes or baked beans or something (depends on what size tin you want too). Remove the label, wash, place in middle of cake tin... If you're worried about it moving at all, you can fill it with rice or somesuch...

Yesterday I made this cake with frozen raspberries from our garden. They had been lurking in the back of the freezer. I coated them with a little cornflour just in case they would make the cake too moist and it turned rather well. In my rummaging I also came across some frozen red and black currants which I will try in this recipe.

Mmmm raspberries would lovely, I'd also try adding good vanilla in place of the lemon and serve it with a dollop of rich greek yoghurt and sprinkle it with icing sugar. A perfect cheap and easy dessert.

Yes cooks privilege - we giggle every time.

Vanessa

Continuing the saga of my search for a ring tin. Yesterday morning I went online to seach all the kitchen shops, and yes, TPANDAV, those pans are expensive, and few and far between in the shops. Ring tins are like hen's teeth! TradeMe, Briscoes, Farmers, commercial suppliers, all the usual places one might look - no ring tins. When I did find them they we between $30 & $60. Or they were the shallow ones that I mentioned earlier.

So, my next step was to put a simple ad' on our local Buy, Sell & Swap site: "WTB cake baking ring tin". Within a few minutes a reply came up "Is this what you're looking for" with a picture of a tin exactly like TPANDAV describes: aluminim Bundt tin. Upon enquiry as to price, I was told 'it's free - call it paying it forward'. So I have scored very well thank you and when I go to pick it up I will take with me a large bag of lemons freshly picked off my laden tree for the 'donor' of my tin to distribute how she feels best. (She works in a local charity shop, so I know they will be used where they will be appreciated).

How lovely Lorna and nice to have a pre loved tin - much nicer and probably better quality to the ones sold today.
Vanessa

I made this tonight with my kids, we split the recipe in half - for each kid and added more apples than the recipe, lol just to be healthy.

We cooked them in 4 small bundt cake tins. The cake was a little heavy, probably due to the kids mixing, the haphazard measuring or the extra apples however it was demolished by the 3 of us in its entirety. Gulp

That was dinner for me tonight!

Vanessa

Yum, Vanessa. Can't wait to pick up my Bundt tin today then I've just got to find the time to make the cake. Very busy week for me this week, but I'll get there!

I made this again - house full of grandchildren - and I cut the apples into smaller cubes than last time and it was extremely good as the apples cooked this time and g/children loved it! Besides the flavour (I add vanilla essence as well), what is really good is that the little chunks of apple distribute evenly throughout the cake and don't all congregate on the bottom, not that they did the first time I cooked it either. Thanks for the recipe!
Regards,
Dawn.

The apple cake that keeps giving - I love recipes that are so simple but timeless and delicious.
Vanessa

Has anyone got a recipe for apple cake or muffins using apple sauce instead of chopped apple? I have lots of home made apple sauce and slightly cinnamon flavoured. As most recipes call for chopped apple, I need a weight
measurement. thanks des

This is very good. You will need unsweetened fruit, or if it is sweetened then adjust the quantity of sugar.

Fruit Purée Cake

500g cooked fruit: apple/peach/pear/apricot/rhubarb/feijoa/mango
1 c. raisins
1 c. walnuts/pecans broken into quarters
125g butter
1 ½ c sugar
2 eggs
2 c. plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon/ginger/cardamom (as appropriate to fruit)

Set oven to 180 degrees C.
Butter and flour bundt tin or other ring tin.
Purée fruit while hot and add raisins. Allow to cool (or refrigerate overnight). Add nuts.
Sift flour, soda, salt and spice.
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Fold in alternately the flour and fruit mixtures in 3 parts.
Bake 50 – 60 minutes. Stand 10 min. before turning out.
Dust with icing sugar.

Thanks Tpandav. That looks fine. des