Spiced Apple Cake

Spiced Apple Cake

Recipe by Nici Wickes

3.9 from 73 votes

Difficulty: Medium

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

35

minutes

Total time

45

minutes

This cake never lasts long as it is so delicious! Try serving it warm with custard and cream for dessert. 

Ingredients

• 2 medium apples sliced very thin

• 1/2 cup walnut pieces

• 3/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed

• 125 g butter, melted

• 1 large egg, lightly beaten with a fork

• 1 cup GF flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon mixed spice

• Icing sugar to dust

Directions

• Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease and line a 20cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.
• Mix the apples, walnuts and sugar in a large bowl. In another bowl, lightly whisk the melted butter and egg together. Pour this over the apple, walnut and sugar mix. Stir to coat the apples. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
• Scrape the cake batter into the tin and level the surface using the back of a spoon. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Leave the cake to settle in the cake tin for 10 minutes before releasing the sides and carefully peeling away the baking paper.
• Serve warm or cooled, dusted with icing sugar and with yoghurt or whipped cream.

TIP:

• A cup and a half of chopped rhubarb works in place of apples for this cake too

*This recipe was tested using Edmonds GF flour

Nici’s Tips For GF Baking:

Gluten-free flours absorb more liquid than regular flour, so, for tender, moist cakes and muffins aim for a sloppy batter. Don’t be tempted to add more GF flour to thicken it, as this is what makes gluten-free baking dry and crumbly. 

Some GF flours (like Orgran brand) are gritty so avoid these for cakes and slices. I use Edmonds or Free From as good all-purpose baking flours.

Often you’ll see in cake and muffin recipes “mix/beat until just combined” or instructions about not overbeating the batter. This is because overmixing toughens the gluten and leads to tough cakes/muffins/pancakes. However with gluten free flours, which often take more mixing to combine, there’s no gluten to toughen so you’re all good to mix away! 

Always sieve gluten free flours when baking as they tend to clump more than regular flours  – and mix the batter well (see note 3). 

The bane of gluten free flours is that when you open the packets it goes everywhere! So proceed with caution.