This delicately spiced apple and almond cake is gluten-free and totally delicious. Almonds make a great base for a rich and nutty cake and the touch of ginger and cinnamon add a subtle spiced flavor. This cake is scrumptious served warm with crème fraiche or whipped cream. It’s a simple cake to put together and looks pretty with the fresh apples and powdered sugar on top. As the cake is flourless it’s perfect for friends who are gluten-free or for anyone celebrating Passover this week. This cake is also featured in my ebook ‘Gluten-free treats’ which is published on Amazon.
Serves: 6/8
Ingredients
- 3 Apples – Royal Gala/ Jazz
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon powder
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 325g / 3 and ¼ cups of ground almonds
- ½ teaspoon of almond extract
- 1 teaspoon of ginger powder
- 8 eggs
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 300g /1 ½ cups of sugar
Garnish
- 1 medium sized apple
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Icing sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 25 cm (10 inch) spring form tin with butter.
- Peel and core the apples and cut into thin slices. Put the apple slices, lemon juice, cinnamon powder and two tablespoons of sugar into a saucepan. Put them over a low heat and cook until tender. They should take about ten to fifteen minutes. You want them to be slightly soft and mashable. Place the apples on a plate and roughly mash with a fork, leaving some bits un-mashed to provide texture. Leave aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, place the ground almonds, almond extract, ginger powder and eggs in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is combined. Finally add the mashed apples, lemon juice, vanilla extract and sugar and blend together.
- For the cooked apple garnish, wash and core one medium sized apple. Cut the apple into thin slices. Put the apple slices in a bowl with the lemon juice. Toss the apples in the bowl, so that each slice is coated with lemon juice.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin. Arrange the apple slices on top of the cake. Place the cake in the over for 45-50 minutes. Check the cake midway through cooking to check it is not burning on top or cooking unevenly. If it’s cooking too much on top, place some cooking foil over it and allow it to continue cooking. If it is cooking unevenly, turn the tin around, so that it cooks on both sides. To test if the cake is cooked, place a skewer in the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. When the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Allow to cool for about ten minutes before removing from the tin. To serve, put the cake on a large serving dish and dust with icing sugar. This cake is best served warm with some cream/ yogurt or ice cream.
