Swedish Apple Cake
From Hilary
Prep time: 30 minutes | Cooking time: 1 hour | Serves: 8
INGREDIENTS
150g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
175g soft light-brown sugar
50g marzipan, broken into little chunks
3 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
½ tsp almond extract
4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
75g ground almonds
Seeds from 8 cardamom pods, ground
2 tbsp milk, if needed
2 tbsp granulated sugar
6 tbsp apple or quince jelly or apricot jam, to glaze, or icing sugar, for dusting
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180C/170C fan/gas mark 5. Butter and line the base of a 23cm
spring form cake tin.
Grind cardamom seeds for this cake in a pestle and mortar with a little granulated sugar,
which acts as an abrasive.
Beat the butter and brown sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the
marzipan. The marzipan should break down. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well
after each addition, then add the almond extract.
Peel, core and chop two of the apples and add them to the mixture.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt, and add the ground almonds
and cardamom. Fold this into the batter, adding it in three lots. The mixture shouldn’t
be too stiff. If it is, add the milk.
Peel the other apples, halve, core and cut them into slim wedges. Toss with the
granulated sugar.
Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and arrange the apple wedges on top in
concentric circles. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of
the cake comes out clean. Cover the top with foil if it starts to get too dark.
Cool the cake for about 15 minutes then run a knife between the edge of the cake and the
inside of the tin, and unclasp the spring. Remove it and carefully remove the base and
the paper. Slide the cake on to a plate and leave to cool completely.
You can either glaze the cake or sift some icing sugar over the top. If you want to glaze it,
put the jam or jelly in a small saucepan with 2 tbsp water and heat until it has melted. If
you’re using apricot jam, you need to sieve it to get the bits of skin out. Brush this over
the top of the cake and leave to set.
