A divine cake for autumn: apple and lemon cake

 

As soon as autumn arrives, I feel I must bake and preferably something with apples. This time I did not want to bake and apple pie again (however I was very tempted to), so I looked around and decided to go for a Mary Berry recipe which I adjusted slightly. Instead of whipped cream I used buttercream and I made my own lemon curd and did not use a ready made one.

Whenever I make a new recipe, I am worried! Is it going to turn out well, or in this instance is the lemon curd going to overpower the apple taste? And things like that go through my mind. Well, I am pleased to say that this cake did turn out well and when Bill tried it he said the first thing he could taste was the apple and not the lemon. That’s what I wanted, yaay!!

Alright let’s get down to the recipe itself – I hate those type of posts where you have to scroll down for ages to get to the Ingredients and the instructions.

INGREDIENTS

Sponge:
112g butter
112g flour
112g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
2 eating apples

Buttercream:
100g butter
icing sugar to taste

Lemon curd:
Juice of 2,5 lemons
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp cornflour
50g butter

 

Important:

• The original recipe is the double amount of everything. I only use half of every recipe because it is enough for us.
• The original recipe requires 2 apples in total, but I used 2 for the half amount because I did not think one apple provided enough apple flavour. Therefore, you might want to consider using 4 apples to the original amount (i.e. The double of everything described in the ingredients section).
• As mentioned earlier, the original recipe uses whipped cream for the filling but I think that would be too moist and heavy, therefore I used buttercream.

 

Mix all the ingredients of the sponge in a bowl except the grated apple. Squeeze the juice out of the grated apple and then fold the grated apples into the mixture.

Transfer the mixture into a baking tin greased and lined with non-stick baking paper.

Bake it at 180C for 30-40 minutes or until done.

Once ready put it aside and let it completely cool.

For the lemon curd, mix the lemon juice, the egg, the egg yolk, the sugar and the cornflour in a bowl. Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat. Once the butter is completely melted, add the lemon mixture, increase the temperature to middle heat whilst stirring it continuously.

Once you get the pudding like consistency, press it through a sieve to get rid of any lumps. Set it aside to cool.

For the buttercream, beat the butter for two minutes with a hand mixer, then gradually add the icing sugar. I think it is always up to a personal taste how much icing sugar to use. I try to use as little as possible but also making sure I get the right consistency.

Once the cake is completely cooled down, cut it into half and spread the buttercream on the top of the bottom one. Then thinly spread the lemon curd and sandwich the two half sponge. Sprinkle some icing sugar on the top.

A divine cake for autumn afternoons and sharing with guests.

 

Give it a whirl.