Quick and Easy Apple Cake

Apples are one of my favourite fruits, and this time of the year they are great in pies, crumbles and cakes. Today I experimented with an apple cake recipe that I came up with and I’m really excited because it turned out quite well. This is a really easy and quick recipe, perfect to warm you up on a cold winter night. And the best part is you don’t even need an oven!

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

4 tbsp flour

½ tsp baking powder

3 tbsp powdered sugar

2 tbsp ground almonds

½ tsp cinnamon

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

4 tbsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 apple sliced finely (3mm thk)

For Topping

1 tsp ground almonds

1 heaped tsp sugar

½ tsp cinnamon powder

Preparation

For the topping grind almonds and sugar till fine and then mix in the cinnamon powder. Set aside.

For the cake, melt butter and milk in sauce pan over a low flame. Add juice of half a lemon and rind of full lemon (small) to this. Whisk and set aside to cool.  When mixture has cooled, add egg and vanilla and whisk. Shift flour and baking powder and combine with remaining dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the liquid mixture of butter, milk and egg to the dry ingredients and whisk until it becomes a smooth batter.  Pour batter into a microwave proof dish (the bowl should be about 7” to 9” in diameter and approximately 5” to 6” deep). Layer the apple slices over the batter such that one slice overlaps the other. Sprinkle topping evenly over the apples and cook in microwave, high heat, for 3 minutes. Poke cake with a knife and if it comes out clean, it is ready.  If knife comes out sticky, heat for an additional 30 seconds to a minute.

Serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice-cream or warm custard.

(Image courtesy Shalini Pereira)