Coffee Apples

It’s a fair while since I made a cake and I thought it about time I got my act together and got baking.  I decided to turn to The Good Granny Cookbook: Traditional Favourites for Modern Families (Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall) which is full of ‘old fashioned’ recipes which remind me of my grandmothers baking and times gone by.

Hidden amongst the familiar cakes lay a hidden treasure – nusskuchen, which is a German hazelnut coffee cake traditionally filled with an apple filling.

I decided to change the filling just slightly by adding some blackcurrents too, the combination of apples and blackcurrents being too good to resist.

The cake was incredibly light and moist, mainly due to the juicy apple filling being soaked up by the sponge layers. The nuts then perform a vital function by absorbing the moisture but keeping some resistance and therefore stability for the cake.

The slight bitterness of the coffee and dark chocolate really draws out the sweetness of the apples giving a good all round flavour which is neither overly sweet or overly rich, just perfectly balanced. 

An incredibly easy and quick cake to make too, the filling can be made in the time the cake takes to bake and then it takes seconds to ice; absolutely perfect as an impromptu dessert.

The only down side to the cake is that I don’t think it would be particularly good if you wanted to wrap it up to take in a packed lunch, rather too moist and messy for that.

The Recipe:

Cake:

• 60g ground hazelnuts
• 115g butter
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white, whipped stiffly
• 115g flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons strong coffee (I used camp coffee)
• 2 tablespoons milk

1. Set the oven to 175C and grease/line a shallow cake tin (I used a 20cm one). 
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy before beating in the eggs (not the extra white). 
3. Fold in the nuts, flour, coffee and milk. Add the baking powder and egg white being careful not to knock the air out. 
4. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes. 
5. When the cake is cool, split it and fill with the apple filling and ice.

Filling:

• 450g apples
• 1 lemon, rind & juice
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam (I used blackcurrent)

1. Peel, core and cut the apples into chunks or slices.
2. Put them in a saucepan with the lemon juice, rind and jam and cook gently until softened.
3. Allow to cool before using.

Icing:

• 115g dark chocolate
• 2 tablespoons strong coffee (again I used camp coffee)
• 15g unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Break up the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl above a pan of gently simmering water.
2. Add the coffee and allow the chocolate to melt. Once melted remove from the heat and sir in the butter and vanilla extract.
3. Pour over the cake while still warm.