Spiced apple cake with cream cheese whipped cream
Ingredients
for the cake
Sugar, 300 g
Brown sugar, 75 g
Eggs, 3
Oil, 175 g (any neutral tasting oil is fine. I use sunflower)
Lemon juice, 4 tbsp
Flour, 350 g
Cinnamon, 4 tsp
Baking soda, 2 tsp
Salt, 1/2 tsp
Apples, 3 (about 450 g total)
for the whipped cream
Heavy cream, 350 g
Cream cheese, 150 g
Powdered sugar, 75 g
Vanilla, 2-3 tsp
Method
for the cake
Cut the apples into very small cubes, set aside.
Preheat your oven to 150 C (300 F). My oven runs hot, that’s why I bake most of my cakes at 150 - 160 C. If you know yours run cold, you can bake it at 160 C (320 F).
Whisk sugars and eggs together for 1-2 minutes with a regular whisk.
Add the oil and whisk until combined, then the lemon juice and whisk again.
Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and whisk until the batter becomes smooth, but don’t overmix.
Add the in cubed apples and fold.
Bake in a parchment lined 28 cm (11 inch) cake tin at 150 C (300 F) for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cake cool completely. You can make it the day ahead and wrap it tightly in cling film and let to chill on the counter.
Once cool, slice it into two and set aside.
The cake is a tad fragile because of the pieces of apple, so after slicing the cake in two, make sure to lift the top layer with either two large knives or two spatulas.
for the whipped cream
I only have access to cream cheese in a tub which has a little more water in it than cream cheese bricks. So, what I do is I drain some of the moisture using paper towels. I add the cream cheese to 1-2 paper towels, wrap it and press gently and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Make sure to change the paper towel a couple of times. (This also works when making cream cheese frosting).
Whisk the cream cheese for about a minute.
Add the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla and whisk until medium peaks.
Divide the heavy cream into two. Using a spatula, fold one of the parts until stiff peaks and fill the cake with that.
Add the top part of the cake and add the medium whipped cream.
I like to divide the whipped cream into two when filling cakes with it to add more structure to the whipped cream thats gonna hold the cake up, but I don’t like the kinda grainy look of stiff peaks, so the top part of the cake gets frosted with the medium peaks whipped cream. This is of course an extra step that you can totally skip.
I decorated the cake with thinly sliced apples that I baked for 15-20 minutes.
Method with photos
Cut the apples into very small cubes, set aside.
Preheat your oven to 150 C (300 F). My oven runs hot, that’s why I bake most of my cakes at 150 - 160 C. If you know yours run cold, you can bake it at 160 C (320 F).
Whisk sugars and eggs together for 1-2 minutes with a regular whisk. Add the oil and whisk until combined, then the lemon juice and whisk again.
Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and whisk until the batter becomes smooth, but don’t overmix.
Add the in cubed apples and fold.
Bake in a parchment lined 28 cm (11 inch) cake tin at 150 C (300 F) for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cake cool completely. You can make this the day ahead and wrap it tightly in cling film and let ti chill on the counter.
Once cool, slice it into two and set aside.
The cake is a tad fragile because of the pieces of apple, so after slicing the cake in two, make sure to lift the top layer with either two large knives or two spatulas.
I only have access to cream cheese in a tub (such as the one in the photo below) which has a little more water in it than cream cheese bricks. So, what I do is I drain some of the moisture using paper towels. I add the cream cheese to 1-2 paper towels, wrap it and press gently and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Make sure to change the paper towel a couple of times. (This also works when making cream cheese frosting).
Whisk the cream cheese for about a minute.
Add the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla and whisk until medium peaks.
Divide the heavy cream into two. Using a spatula, fold one of the parts until stiff peaks and fill the cake with that.
Add the top part of the cake and add the medium whipped cream.
I like to divide the whipped cream into two when filling cakes with it to add more structure to the whipped cream thats gonna hold the cake up, but I don’t like the kinda grainy look of stiff peaks, so the top part of the cake gets frosted with the medium peaks whipped cream. This is of course an extra step that you can totally skip.
