French Apple Cake

It has been a while since I posted something that I've baked. These days I only bake when it's necessary like trying to finish up something in the fridge. This case is apples. I have quite a number and some of them especially fuji apples' skin are turning wrinkly. The rest were granny smith. So I've used a mixture of both with granny smith dominating the combination.

I had always wanted to make this cake where the recipe is by Dorie Greenspan but was published by David Lebovitz. I played around with the ratio of the apples according to what I have, which is way more than needed and luckily they still turned out great, totally filled with chunky apples pieces!

I've checked with Capt'n Hook, it seems like he prefered this apple cake rather than my other favourite Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake. He loves super moist cake and I think this almost pudding like cake totally fit into that category. Usually cinnamon is used for anything apple but not this, hence I can taste the pure vanilla fragrance in this cake together with the slight tangy granny smith apple pieces.

I've gotten BoiBoi to help me out with the sifting and whisking cos making this cake is really super easy. He was aghast when I poured in the liqour and complained that he would not be able to eat any until I reassured him the alchohol will evaporate during baking. He loved this cake too, well another way to make your kid have fruits, not that I have any problems with him.

French Apple Cake
One 9-inch (23 cm) cake
Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

3/4 cup (110g) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (a mix of varieties)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar (I've reduced to 130g)
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven. Heavily butter an 8- or 9-inch (20-23cm) springform pan and place it on a baking sheet.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch (3cm) pieces.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then whisk in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter
Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter. Fold in the apple cubes until they’re well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.

Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.