Toffee Apple Cake

With a bowl full of apples, a jar of dulce de leche and a desire to get creative in the kitchen, the obvious answer seemed to be a sticky toffee apple cake.

I knew exactly what I wanted from this cake - a rich crumbly texture, topped with sticky apples.  The only problem was how to create it without it becoming so sweet it was sickly.

Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes: The Best of Anna Del Conte(the fabulous, Anna Del Conte) provided the inspiration to use olive oil instead of butter in the cake, to get a better crumb, but otherwise the recipe is my own.

I think the recipe I used nailed it.  I ended up with a slightly dry (in a good way), crumbly light textured cake with a delightful chewy apple top.  Gorgeous.  Isn’t it just wonderful when an experiment works out well? 

This cake is very nice as a mid morning/afternoon treat with a cuppa but would work beautifully with a little whipped cream as a dessert.

The Recipe:

120g golden raisins

150ml olive oil

150g castor sugar

4 tbsp dulce de leche

2 large eggs

350g 00 flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1/2 tsp salt

400g apples (cut into cubes)

1 tsp lemon oil/extract

1. Soak the raisins in just enough boiling water to cover them, for 20 minutes.

2. Heat the oven to 180′c or the equivalent and line a 20cm round tin with a layer of greaseproof paper.

3. Beat the oil and sugar until combined, add the eggs one by one and beat until mayonnaise like in consistency.

4. Add 2tbsp dulce de leche and beat until well combined.

5. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients before gently stirring in the raisins.

6. Dot the apples over the surface of the cake and drizzle with the remaining dulce de leche.

7. Bake for 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours or until a cake tester comes out clean.