Apple- Caramel Cake

Apple-Caramel Cake

Apple-Caramel-Cake

Cake is one thing that can be had with milk/ coffee/tea for breakfast, as snack and as dessert. Desserts can be made from cake combining them with ice cream/cream/custard etc. Trifle is one of my favorite cake desserts. When cake is made with lots of different fruits it not only adds to the taste but adds the required dietary fibers and nutrients to the cake. Apple cake is very tasty, nutritious cake. I prefer not removing the peeling of apple as they add lots of color to the cake and the vitamins present in the cake are also not lost. As far as possible try to include the peeling of fruits and vegetables to the food to get full nutritional value from them.

Preparation Time: 30 min.

Baking Time: 50 min. (Approx,)

Servings: Makes nearly 1 Kg. Cake(Approx.)

Ingredients for Making Apple Cake:

• 200 gm. All-purpose flour (Maida)
• 300 gm Sugar (150+100+50 gm.)
• 100 Gm. Nutrelite butter/White butter (Chilled)
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2Teaspoon Cinnamon powder
• 50 gm. Kernel of Walnuts cut to pieces

Walnut Pieces

• 1 Teaspoon Baking powder
• 1 Teaspoon Eating soda (Soda-bi-carb)

Directions For Making Apple Cake:

Golden Syrup:

• Make golden syrup from 100 gm. of sugar. 

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2014/02/how-to-make-golden-syrup.html Thick Golden Syrup Caramelizing The Walnuts:

• Heat a thick bottom pan with remaining 50 gm. of sugar on low flame with regular stirring till the color of sugar turns brown (Caramelized).

Sugar being Caramelized for Walnuts

Caramelized Sugar ready to be added to Walnut

• Switch off the heat and pour this sugar caramel on the cut walnuts.Stir quickly to coat the pieces with caramel. Spread these caramel coated walnuts on a plate and crush to separate the pieces coated with caramel.  

Caramelized sugar sterred with Walnut pieces

• Some may get crushed to small pieces and some caramel pieces may be without walnut. Do not worry. Keep aside for later use.

Walnut pieces coated with Sugar caramel

Making Batter For Apple Cake:

• Mix
• Maida (All-purpose flour)
• Baking powder
• Soda-bi-carb
• Cinnamon powder
• Sift through a fine sieve four to five times to ensure thorough mixing of the ingredients.
• Keep the mixture in a dry container for later use.
• Make fine powder of 150 gm. of sugar,
• Separate egg yolks from egg white and whisk the egg yolks.
• Beat egg white to peaky stiffness. When egg white is foamier and fluffy the cake comes out best.

Whisked Egg White

• Cut chilled butter to small pieces (Cubes) and add sugar powder to it.
• Whisk till creamy and fluffy.
• Add egg yolk in small proportions with constant whisking. When all egg yolk is added the mixture should be creamy and light.

Egg yolk-Butter-Sugar Mixture

• Remove the core with seeds from apples and grate them. The grated apples will turn brown do not worry. Immediately add all of it to the mixture of egg yolk-butter-sugar.
• Add egg white in small proportions to above mixture and fold with fingers gently.
• Add golden syrup and mix gently.
• Add caramel coated walnuts and mix.
• Batter for the cake is ready.

Batter For Apple-Caramel-Cake

Baking The Cake:

• Pour the batter in a baking dish and bake for 30 min. at 160^oC in a preheated oven.

After 15 min of baking at 160 C

• Increase the temperature to 180^oC and bake for 10-15 minutes.(Approximately)

After 45 min. of baking

• Keep checking the cake by poking a dry metallic/wooden needle if it comes out without any thing sticking to it then it is ready. Stop baking further and remove from oven.
• The time for baking may change with the size of eggs (Egg white amount) and type of oven. I have used oven with heating from top and bottom but baking was done using bottom heating only.
• Cool the baked cake on a rake covering it with thin damp cloth (Muslin cloth).

Cake cooling on the Rake

• Place a plate on the cooled cake and holding the dish with the cake invert the plate. Tap lightly on sides and bottom of baking dish. Cake will come out easily on the plate. Remove the butter paper gently.

Inverted Apple-Caramel-Cake

•  Cut to pieces and enjoy delicious Apple Cake with hot cup of tea/coffee.

Apple-Caramel-Cake

Tips:

• If you have square oven with top and bottom heating then for best result bake the cake using bottom heating only as top heating causes the cake to become hard and black from top with center remaining uncooked.
• Round oven cooks cakes from sides and bottom thus cake comes out good.
• Grate and add grated apple to flour just before use.
• Prepare the cake baking dish before starting to make the batter by either oiling the dish and dusting with flour or lining it with butter paper.
• Always remove the cake from baking dish when it is at room temperature not warm to ensure cake coming out of dish without breaking.
• Coat dry fruits with flour to avoid them from settling at the bottom of the cake.
• Do not beat the batter while mixing the egg white, if done so the air trapped in the egg white will come out and cake will become less fluffy and soft.
• The Golden syrup should not be too thin this will cause the batter to become thin.
• Golden syrup can be make and kept in fridge for long time.

Alternate suggestions:

• Walnuts can be added without coating them with caramel, just coat them with little flour to stop them from settling at the bottom.
• Walnuts can be roasted before coating with caramel/flour to give wonderful roasted flavor.
• Almonds can be cut and added along with walnuts.
• Green cardamom powder can be used instead of cinnamon powder. If cardamom powder is being used then take 1 tea spoon of it rather than 1/2teaspoon.
• Golden syrup can be stirred not mixed uniformly to give double color to the batter and cake.(Yellow and golden brown) 
• One medium size apple can be peeled and cut to 1 cm. cube pieces and coated with flour and added to the batter with the nuts.
• This cake can be made using whole wheat flour/multigrain flour, the color and textutre will change but the nutritional value will increase.