My favourite apple cake

Hi guys!

Time flies - September has almost come to an end already and I am trying to soak up as much of the gorgeous autumn weather as possible. Switzerland has been very lovely these days but as university started again for me, I don't have as much time for baking and cooking anymore as I would love to. I managed to bake my favourite apple cake though. I get really excited once the apples are ripe and fresh produce returns to the supermarket aisles. Don't get me wrong - you can buy apples in Switzerland all year 'round, but as I like to stay in season with my cooking and baking, I like to adapt the fruit I use with the seasons. Today's recipe is from a really old and typical german cookbook my mum bought when she was studying 30 years ago. It is literally falling apart, but we can't bring ourselves to throw it, even though this apple cake is probably the single thing that we are still baking from it.

Here's the recipe:

For the dough:
125g (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g (4 oz; a little over 1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (about 1 tablespoon)
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200g (1 1/3 cups; 7 oz) all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

For the topping:
500g (16 oz; 1 lb) low-fat curd cheese
150g (5 oz; 2/3 cup) granulated sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (about 1 tablespoon)
150g (5 oz; 1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, separated
100g (3.5 oz) cornflour
1250g (2 lb 8 oz) apples

For sprinkling:
50g (2 oz) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F). For the dough, beat the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla sugar for 8-10 minutes or until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the flour and baking powder and stir until combined. 

2) Grease a baking tray (appr. 41x20cm (15x8 inches)) with butter. Evenly distribute the dough on the tray. It will seem like very little dough, but it will rise during baking, so make sure you distribute it evenly, using a spatula.

3) Bake the dough in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.

4) While the dough starts baking, in a bowl whisk the curd cheese, sugar, vanilla sugar, soft butter and egg yolks until lump-free. Add the cornflour and whisk again until smooth.

5) Beat the eggwhites until stiff. Add to the curd-sugar-butter mixture and fold through carefully. 

6) Peel and core the apples. Cut into quarters. Now slice each quarter in very fine slices. 

7) When the dough has baked for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven. Layer half of your apple on the dough, top with the curd cheese-sugar-egg-mixture and arrange the other half of your apple slices on top.

8) Return the tray to the oven and bake at 180°C (356°F) for 60 minutes.

9) Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the warm cake with the mixture. Cut into squares and serve with whipped cream.

Active preparation time: about 40 minutes
Total preparation time: 2 hours

Here's how it looks:

I know, I know, this cake is not the fastest, but the work is definitely worth it. You don't have to arrange the apples in two layers. My mum normally ends up with a single layer on top because she wants to be done faster. She will happily admit that the cake tastes slightly better though when you take the time to do two layers of apples. The dough will stay nice and moist because of the moisture from the apples or the curd cheese-mixture. I probably love this cake so much because it is not your typical apple cake, even though it combines two of the most classic ingredients of fall (apples and cinnamon). The cake is amazing served warm, but it will be great when it stands for two days and the flavours have had time to combine thoroughly as well. I hope you will like it as much as I do! 

We have been sticking to the recipe so far preparing this cake on a baking tray, but it would probably make an equally good impression baked in a springform baking tin.

Have fun trying and savour the golden days autumn offers!