Caramelised Apple Cake

 

This Caramelised Apple Cake is my second favourite cake.  I have made it a few times now, so I am confident that it is delicious, moist and hard to get wrong!  To get the caramelised effect you sprinkle sugar on the bottom of a cake tin, top with sliced apples and then the cake mixture. It’s a lovely touch and looks super pretty.  We all love it!

Allow about 15 minutes to prepare the cake and 50 minutes to bake it.  And make sure you have greaseproof paper.  Serve with ice cream.  And tea!

Caramelised Apple Cake (serves 12)

5 medium apples

Juice of ½ a lemon

275g (9oz) light brown sugar

5 medium eggs

100g (3½oz) butter, melted

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

215g (7½oz) plain flour

¾ tsp baking powder

100g (3½oz) ground almonds

 

Preheat oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Grease a cake tin and line the base and sides with nonstick baking/greaseproof paper.  Peel, halve and core the apples and slice (as in the above picture). Sprinkle with the lemon juice and 50g (2oz) of the sugar and set aside.

Scatter a further 50g (2oz) of sugar over the base of the tin. Cover with a layer of apple slices, overlapping them slightly so they sit in concentric circles.

Beat the eggs, melted butter, remaining sugar, salt and vanilla extract together until combined. Add the flour and baking powder, followed by the ground almonds. Add the remaining apple slices (chopped smaller if you like), including any liquid, and fold together quickly. Pour into the tin and bake for 50 minutes, until the cake has risen and is golden brown. (At around 30 minutes into the baking time, check the cake. If the top is golden brown by that point, cover with a layer of foil for the remainder of the baking time.)

Carefully turn out onto a serving plate so that the base is uppermost.  Eat!!

Recipe from Tesco

Cooking With Kids – Salmon and Green Bean Curry

This is a gently spiced Salmon and Green Bean Curry recipe from the lovely Nadiya Hussain’s free kids cookbook for World Book Day.  It is all made in one pan so nice and simple.

My youngest son Robin (5) helped me make the curry using his new proper grown up chopping knife (the knife brand is ‘kitchen devil’, so obviously he was sold).  Luckily he is naturally cautious so I wasn’t scared for long!  I just had to make sure there was no loud music on and he and his brother were in different rooms and not distracting each other.  He helped me cut the green beans and salmon, holding one end with one hand (fingers curled in) and cutting slowly with the other.

He also helped me put the ingredients in the pan and stir.  Great job Robin!  Hopefully Freddy will cook with me soon too.  Freddy and us adults loved the dish with some brown rice.  Robin wasn’t keen on the green beans but enjoyed the rest of it and we agreed to try it with peas next time.  Canned chickpeas would make a great alternative to the salmon.  Allow about 30 minutes to make everything!

Salmon and green bean curry (serves 4 with brown rice)

Glug of oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Thumb of ginger, grated very small

1 small onion, chopped small

1 tsp tomato puree or 1 tomato, chopped small

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 tsp garam masala

Water

170g green beans, chopped

450g salmon, skin removed and chopped in to chunks

Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Heat the oil, garlic, ginger and onion in a pan for 5 minutes, until the onions have softened.  Add the tomato puree or tomatoes, turmeric and garam masala and cook for another minute.  Add a 2 tbsp water and then the green beans.  Cook for 5 minutes, adding a little more water if need be, to just cover them.

Add the salmon and cook for another 5-7 minutes, adding a little more water to help them cook if necessary.  Take off the pan and stir in the coriander.  Eat with brown rice!