Spiced apple & pear cake...

Another nice one from The Hairy Bikers, well on this occasion Hairy Dieters ;) As I was looking for a "lighter" cake, something I can enjoy and indulge in, but not feel guilty about, I stumbled upon this one. 

Well, OK I don't ever feel guilty about eating a cake (or eating anything else for that matter) because I simply enjoy it! Recently though, I make my food choices more carefully, maybe because it was my birthday just few days ago, or maybe because I've realized that I can eat healthier, make better choices when it comes to food without compromising on taste. 

Spiced apple & pear cake, the original recipe, which comes from one of the Hairy Dieters (Bikers) cook books, calls for only apples, but I got both (apples & pears) at home, so decided to make it super fruity. It's not that spicy, as the title might suggest, but it has a nice warmth to it. The cake is quite moist, but crumbly and sweet, even though there's not much sugar in it. All in all, nice piece of cake to go with your cup of tea or coffee.

I also made few other small changes - to make the recipe vegan - swapping the eggs and mils for their plant based alternatives.

How to make it...

Ingredients:
- oil, for spraying
- 750 g Bramley cooking apples (had 4 apples and 4 pears)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 250 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
- 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 6 tablespoons water, whisk together until thick and foamy)
- 100 g demerara sugar, plus 2 tbsp
- 200 ml oat or soy milk
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sifted icing sugar, for dusting

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C. Line a 23 cm spring clip cake tin with baking parchment. Mist the base and sides with oil.

- Peel the apples and cut them into quarters. Remove the cores and cut the apples into thin slices – you’ll need about 500 g prepared weight. 

- Put the apple slices in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice and zest.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and spice in a large mixing bowl. 

- Whisk the flax eggs with the 100 g of sugar, the milk and sunflower oil in a separate medium bowl using a large metal whisk. 

- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring lightly until combined – use the whisk to break up any stubborn lumps. 

- Toss the lemony apples through the cake batter until evenly mixed and pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

- Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar evenly over the top and bake the cake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour until it is well risen and golden on top. 

- Test the cake by inserting a skewer into the centre, it should slide easily through the apples in the middle and come out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the tin and carefully peeling off the baking parchment. 

- Dust with sifted icing sugar and serve warm or cold.

Smacznego!


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