It is the birthday of a friend today, with a party to be held at a beach. The instructions were to bring something French to eat. I was in a baking mood this morning and so I decided, after some thought and research, to make an apple cake as a birthday present. Apparently this is a typical French-style cake. Well, it is French enough for me, with its simple combination of fruit and cake.
(Interestingly it is roughly reminiscent of the apricot/peach upside-down cake I was planning to make when I was shopping in the market, but I could not get a definitive source to tell me whether that type of cake was of French origin or not, so I decided to use the apples instead. I can just eat the apricots and peaches for lunch each day this week.)
Ok, here’s how I made it.
It is actually very simple to make (as so many tasty things are), and I’m more or less following a recipe I found online that is traceable to Bon Appetit. [Update: See modification discussed at bottom of post.]
I try to prepare my pans first, when baking. I’m using a spring-form pan today, for variety (not needed for this especially) and I’ve dabbed the sides with butter to allow some greaseproof paper to stick to it. I then buttered that paper and powdered the insides with sugar, knocking off the excess.
Peeling two and a half medium-sized apples (I used some excellent Fujis from the market which I got at 30%+ lower prices because they were not as pretty as the identically-flavoured ones in the box next to them) and slicing them into thinnish slices (1/16ths or thereabouts) takes relatively little time to do. A 1/4 cup of butter melted into a skillet comes next, adding 3/4 cup of sugar (reduce that to a little over a 1/2 cup if this is way too much sugar, as it probably is), some ground cinnamon (about a tsp), and 1/3 cup of water… bringing it to a gentle boil. Add the apples and simmer for 15 minutes until they are tender. Keep them coated with the mixture and keep turning them. Try not to eat any.
Then arrange the apples on the bottom of the pan and, after reducing the remaining liquid until it is a syrup, pour that syrup over the apples.
Now for the main cake batter. (Turn on the oven to pre-heat to 350F.) This is a pretty standard batter, slightly richer in eggs than some. I used 3/4 cup of sugar and combined it with some vanilla essence (2 tsp), 3 egg yolks and 2 eggs (all from large-medium eggs) and kept that moving together for a while to blend. Then I added in a cup of flour, 1+ tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt that I’d dry-mixed together separately. I stirred that in gradually, and then stirred in (not over-beating now) a 1/2 cup of melted butter. (Had I remembered, I’d have put in a tad more ground cinnamon, some nutmeg, and some fresh lemon zest, but I got distracted somehow).
Then I poured the batter evenly over the apple base and popped it into the oven for 45 minutes, during which I cleaned up, made lunch out of the two egg-whites, and wrote this blog post. Test the cake in the usual way – poke with something thin and check it comes out clean.
The result? Tasty bliss (see opening photo). Next, open it up (after some minutes of cooling) and package it to take it off to the beach to share! [update: Recipe modification – See below.]
[Update: See some discussion in the comments. In particular, see comment 14 (or so) where I think I see what is not quite right with this recipe:
I think I now see what was wrong with the recipe that I was following (having now looked at other examples of French Apple Cake). They do not mix the apple into the batter but rather have the batter on top which is why it seems a bit more like an upside down cake that isn’t […] and why the cake, tasty as it is, seems to lack apple. So here’s what I would do if doing again – I would simply keep everything the same (including the apple quantity) but I would let the apple be in the interior of the batter, so that there is apple throughout the bite, and not tacked on at the bottom. Now I think about it, I suddenly remember having such cake in France, and it is indeed apple-throughout…. very odd that the recipe (see the link in the post) seems to miss that.
]
-cvj
Hi Keitha,
I think I now see what was wrong with the recipe that I was following (having now looked at other examples of French Apple Cake). They do not mix the apple into the batter but rather have the batter on top which is why it seems a bit more like an upside down cake that isn’t (confusing you and Eleanor above) and why the cake, tasty as it is, seems to lack apple. So here’s what I would do if doing again – I would simply keep everything the same (including the apple quantity) but I would let the apple be in the interior of the batter, so that there is apple throughout the bite, and not tacked on at the bottom. Now I think about it, I suddenly remember having such cake in France, and it is indeed apple-throughout…. very odd that the recipe (see the link in the post) seems to miss that.
Having solved the problem to my satisfaction, I can now happily go off to see the movie I’ve been procrastinating over going to see tonight.
Cheers,
-cvj
Well, I was not going to characterize the “American Way” quite so harshly, so I’ll stay away from that.
I think that the best thing for me to do to determine how the French apple cake is supposed to be is sample a few more recipes and see if the apple-cake ratio varies quite a lot. As I said on the beach, I would also go for a bit more apple, but only a bit.
As for your question about characterizing the balance scientifically… I’m all at sea there. Sorry. But maybe another reader can take a stab?
Cheers,
-cvj
The American way would likely be to just buy the apple upside-down cake at Ralph’s and if one bothered to make it, it would be with some kind of cake mix and with canned apples. I think you are right that most Americans like food super sweet and or super salty!
I like neither, but still I am cheering on for a few more pieces of apple; it would not be an o.d. but a more proportionate balance.
Let me talk like you, Clifford..
So today, I was at the tailor and I had to comment on how the proportion of space between the bottom button and where it was to be trimmed off was too great a distance.
Here I speak like myself…
Having balance that is off is just not good visually.
So without time to go back and read all of your previous postings, how would you say the balance of the cake (my feeling there could be just a tad more apples or my experience with the tailor) relate in a scientific way? Just one simple example please.
You are the exception making the lower level apple cake!
Thanks for the review, Keitha!
Was thinking about the apple issue and am in two minds. On the one hand, sure, more apple. On the other, perhaps that is really not the intent of the recipe. It kind of becomes something else if one ODs on the apple, and I can understand the wish to have the amount that is there so that it is a tasty simple cake with a treat of apple pieces on the bottom. Perhaps that is a more European attitude than an American one? I don’t know. Will try it the other way next time and see.
Good to see you at the beach. Take care.
-cvj
Dear Clifford-
The upside-down upside-down apple cake was Delicious (though perhaps more delicious with a 1/4 to a 1/3 more apples as you suggested)! The warm yellow color of the cake was gorgeous in its simplicity. The cake flesh was dense and strong without at all being dry. A perfect cake to eat at the beach! Thank you for sharing it.
The pictures of the process are nice to see and also it looks like you have a great stove!
kim,
I see. That’s natural living? Thanks for explaining. I don’t give it a name. It just seems like ordinary life to me. A function of being aware of the world one lives in. I can’t imagine going about life not being aware of all those thing and taking part in them. It is not a health consciousness or anti-chemical fad. It’s just the way I roll, as they say.
Ok, that’s really more than enough about me, please.
Best,
-cvj
Insult? How so? Since when is “simple” a negative thing? In the context of food, doing simple but effective (tasty) things with good fresh ingredients is the height of accomplishment in my view.
Cheers,
-cvj
“Well, it is French enough for me, with its simple combination of fruit and cake.”
A witty insult. 🙂
By natural living I mean living in accordance with nature by growing your own food, avoiding pesticides/chemicals, being health conscious, interested in nature, hiking that sort of thing and from reading your posts it seems that you are.
Eleanor:- No, it was not an upside-down cake.
-cvj
I don’t know how to answer that question. Also, I don’t know what “natural living” is. What is that?
Best,
-cvj
How did you become interested in organics, growing food and natural living Clifford?
Yum – your house must have smelled divine after baking that!
The inclusion in the instructions of “Try not to eat any” made me laugh. However, I think there is a strong case for eating some – you need to test and see whether any more sugar is required. Well, that’s my story… 🙂
Did you flip it over to serve?
Sounds delicious! I love fruit in baked goods. Lucky friend!