One of the first recipes I posted here on Mondomulia was my mum’s Apple Tart (torta di mele). It’s made with a simple sponge and a layer of apples, raisins and walnuts in the centre.
My mum just visited me in London and we baked this cake together. It always tastes better when your mum bakes a cake, doesn’t it? :)
I took photos of my mum’s cake and decided to re-publish this recipe, even though it was already on the blog. The new photos are a testimony of how much my food styling and photography has improved since I started. It makes me proud, as my objective was always to focus on my photography and improve my skills.
I feel more confident now at using the light, styling the food and editing the photos. Not to mention I’m a much better baker! ;)
The old photos are also a reminder that there is always something more to learn and I should try to be creative and be better, every day, as I grow alongside my blog.
This Apple Cake is after all an old recipe. It’s been passed down by generations in my family and my mum kept it in her battered recipe book…
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups of white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups of sunflower oil
- 3 cups of plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 Russet apples, chopped in thin slices
- handful of raisins (or mixed dried fruit), soaked in rum or whisky
- walnuts, chopped
Preparation
Soak a handful of raisins overnight with rum or whisky. This will make the cake soft and moist.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Peel the apples, slice them finely and put them aside.
Whisk the eggs and the sugar. Add the sunflower oil, flour and baking powder. Mix the ingredients together; the dough should be quite solid and hard to stir.
Grease a cake tin with butter, then sprinkle it with flour all over. Remove the flour in excess. Pour half of the cake mix in the tin.
Place the apple slices over the cake. Add the raisins and walnuts.
Pour the other half of the cake mixture over, filling 3/4 of the cake tin. The consistency of the cake mix is very dense, so don’t worry if it seems hard to spread, this is how it should be.
Bake in the oven for about 60 minutes, check with a toothpick to ensure the cake is cooked throughout.
5 Comments
What a delicious looking cake! Somehow mum’s recipes are hard to beat, right? I like the addition of walnuts – in Germany, apples are typically paired with hazelnuts only, but I much prefer walnuts! Interesting to see how much your styling and photography has improved over time – gives me hope for my photos (alas I am still in the very beginning of learning how to shoot and style my food to look pretty!). Sophia
Classy comfort food. Great to see recipes handed down, I thought it was a dying tradition.
Its delicious apple cake, thanks for the recipe :)
I have been following you on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook for a few months now and finally got in the kitchen last night with this great recipe! It was surprisingly easy to make and my husband told me it looked like a professional made it. Haha thanks for the recipe. Two. Questions… Do you think this recipe could be made with almond meal? Have you considered doing videos? Thanks :)
Thanks for your comment! I’m too shy speaking in front of the camera to make videos, maybe one day though… ;) About replacing the flour with ground almonds, I think it would work well because almonds and apples pair well in taste. Are you gluten intolerant? I would maybe use 2/3 almonds and 1/3 wheat flour.