Sweet Sundays: French Apple Cake

 

Fall is my most favorite season.  The smell of the leaves, the smell of the leaves burning and apples.  All of those glorious apples.  One of my favorite days of the year is the day we go apple picking as a family.  We have a favorite orchard that has the best hot donuts and cider ever.  Ok, maybe that is the real reason I love apple picking.  The apples are crisp and ripe and so abundant that it is easy to rack up more that you wanted to spend, because you can’t stop grabbing that next apple.

So what did I do when I came home with my pounds and pounds of apples?  I baked an apple cake of course!  I baked an apple cake last year http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2010/10/apple-cake-with-crackly-meringue.html.  Check it out!  It was a bit more extensive than this one, but just as apple yumminess!

This apple delight is brought to you by my favorite French cookbook.  “Around My French Table”, by Dorie Greenspan is probably one of my most favorite cookbooks ever.  Please see the list of blog posts that pertain to this fabulous book.  I love everything about it!  The pictures, the easy instructions and the great stories on how the recipes came to be.  This French apple cake is quick and simple and so delicate.  It really is a more of an apple pile with a little bit of cake to hold it all together.  I used four different kinds of apples.  Ms.  Greenspan said that this really is the key to the recipe.  Also, the cake gets better at room temperature.  The moisture in the apple flavors the cake and it almost has the consistency of a sponge cake.  You guys got to try it!

You might also like these great recipes!

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/05/gnocchi-la-parisienne.html

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/04/gourgeres.html

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-is-little-coconut-between-friands.html

 

 

French Apple Cake

 

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

4 large apples (if you can, choose four different kinds).  I used Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, and Golden Delicious.

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons rum, I used Gran Marnier

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

8 tablespoons (1 stick butter), melted and cooled

 

1.  Preheat oven to 35o degrees.  Generously butter a 9-inch springform pan.  Place pan on a baking sheet.

2.  Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

3.  Peel the apples, remove the cores and cut into chunks about 1-inch big

4.  In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. 

5.  Pour in the sugar and whisk for two minutes until blended followed by the rum and vanilla.

6.  Whisk in half of the flour.

7.  Whisk in half of the butter.

8.  Whisk in the other half of flour.

9.  Whisk in the other half of the butter.  At this point the batter should be smooth and velvety.

10.  With a spatula fold in the apples so they are evenly coated with the batter.  It is a massive amount of apples, but trust me it works!

11.  Pour the apple mixture in the buttered pan and push the apples around until it is flat and even. 

12.  Bake in oven for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

13.  Cool on rack for 5 minutes before running a knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen to the cake from the edge. 

14.  Open the pan and gently lift it away from the side.  The batter of the cake is merely there to hold all of the apples together. 

15.  Cool completely and serve!