It's Christmas time and this year I am back home with family in a small town in southern Germany, near the blackforest. To my delight it even started snowing which transforms this little town into a fairytale landscape. My Mom decided to make her special German style Apple Cake. she doesn't bake much, but this cake is just a dream. It's really moist, the apples are almost like apple sauce and combined with the almonds and sweetness of the jelly-rum glace, it's just delicious. I have tried to make it myself, but it never is the same :)
Here is the recipe, enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 200 g Butter
- 200 g Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 1 pinch of Salt
- 200 g Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 Lemon
- 6 Apples (tart, e.g. Boskop)
- 3 tablespoons of Red Currant Jelly
- 100 g Almond Slices
- 6-10 teaspoons of Apricot Jelly
- 5 teaspoons of Rum
- Powder Sugar
Preparation:
Preheat oven at 330 degree Fahrenheit.
- Whisk butter and sugar till foamy. Add eggs one by one. Combine salt, flour and baking powder. Add spoon by spoon to the egg mix. Pour dough into a buttered spring form.
- Next, prepare the apples. Use a kind of apple that is slightly sour such as Boskop. Peel apples and cut in half, remove the core. Put the apple halves face down on a cutting board and cut them lenghtwise in thin slices but do not cut entirley through, just scratch them (hasselback style, see picture). Drizzle the lemon juice over the apples. Add a bit of red currant jelly in each apple half.
- Arrange the apple halves face down in a circle in the baking form and add more in the middle (see picture). Top everything off with sliced almonds.
- Bake in preheated oven at 330 degree Fahrenheit for 35-45 minutes on the lower rack. Try with a fork whether cake is ready (pinch the dough, if fork comes out clean, cake is ready).
- In the meantime, combine the apricot jelly and rum and heat it up. After the cake is done, coat the top sides of the apples that peek through the cake with the jelly-rum mix. This will give the cake a nice glance. Let cool for a bit. Then sprinkle with powder sugar.
And the main star: Kitty :) |