Spelt Apple Pie Cake

When it came to discovering the intricacies of the opposite sex, I was definitely a late bloomer. It wasn't until I was out of my teens (20, in fact) when I had my first romantic liaison. He was my first take-home beau (to meet the parents, that is) and he was French. Boy, was I glad I waited...

We met at University and during some semester breaks, we would drive across the English Channel to spend some time at his family's home in the French countryside. The days were idyllic and amongst other things, I learnt how to pick grapes from the vineyard, and plums, cherries, apples from the orchard. Those were my first farm-to-table experiences but being a young lass, I had little appreciation of what that really meant.

The first time we went apple-picking, we'd spread a canvas blanket at the base of the tree before he climbed up the apple tree and shook a fruit-laden branch. To my amazement, a number of red apples came showering effortlessly down to the ground, every one of them missing my head like a miraculous spectacle. 

Of course, in a commercial orchard this tree-shaking business wouldn't have been allowed because the fallen apples would have been  heavily bruised and unsuitable for sale. Well, I didn't know any better in those days, and as we laid back against the canvas munching our crisp, red apples, I marvelled at how unglossy (unwaxed) they were and how authentically sweet they tasted. Needless to say, those times brought me so much joy.

His grandmother was kind enough to teach me how to bake those freshly-picked fruits into the most wonderful tarts and cakes. In the process, she also taught me how to light up her antique Aga oven and control its temperature, something I'd never done before and never again since. All this while we communicated in what can be best described as sign language because my French, like my kitchen skills, was totally atrocious.

The memories of those carefree, younger days spent in France have inspired me to try out this foolproof recipe. You can't go wrong with an apple cake really, and this one is so easy you may be able to do it blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back. But why make life harder for yourself?

I called it the apple pie cake because while it uses a cake batter, the apples are stacked up neatly inside the the way you'd do it if it was in an apple pie. The recipe is an adaptation of Dorie Greenspan's Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake, except that I used spelt flour instead of all purpose, and olive oil instead of butter (and I've adjusted the measurements too).

The cake is incredibly soft and moist, almost pudding-like and on the brink of fragility because the scant batter held up the apples just so. The spelt and olive oil may have something to do with this tenderest of textures, but the densely stacked up apple slices sure did their bit too. It's lovely eaten fresh, but taste even better the next day. Definitely a go-to cake - both to bake and eat - after a long day when nothing seems to go as planned!

 

Spelt Apple Pie Cake

Ingredients:

1½ cups spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

4 large apples (if you can, choose 4 different kinds)

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

10 tablespoons virgin olive oil

Icing sugar, to dust

Method:

1.Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Butter an 8-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet (I used a silicone flower mold that was easy to remove).

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

3. Peel the apples and remove the cores. Slice the apples sideways into ½ cm thick round slices, with a hole in the middle where the core used to be.

4. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Add in the sugar and vanilla and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the olive oil, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining olive oil, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Spoon a layer of the batter into the base of the pan, then arrange a layer of apples on top. Repeat until you run out of batter and apples (the batter layers will have to be thin as there isn’t much of it), end with batter layer. Press down gently on the apples with the spatula so that the top layer is fairly even.

5. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.

6. Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. (Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren’t any apples stuck to it.) Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish. Once completely cooled, dust icing sugar on top. The cake can be served warm or at room temperature and actually tastes better the next day.