Even the word ‘apple teacake’ makes me feel warm and fuzzy. There’s just something about cooked apples that speaks to the child within. And ‘tea time’ is pretty much my favourite time in any day.
So, this particularly delightful apple teacake originally came from a cookbook called “Australian Family Favourites” and we made the cake so often that the pages eventually stuck together. Never to be prised apart. I’m clearly not a neat cook.
After the disaster of the stuck pages, I stopped making the cake. Which turned out to be a real shame as everyone always asked what happened to that delightful caramel apple teacake you always used to make.
++ This one is yummy too: Blueberry yoghurt cake ++
It’s not often a person is known for a special recipe, so I felt quite honoured and instantly set about recreating the recipe. I think I made it even better. The new version contains yoghurt, which I’m pretty sure the old version didn’t have. We’ll probably never know (unless a random copy of Australian Family Favourites turns up somewhere? Pink book, dead uninspiring looking, check your shelf).
In the meantime, enjoy this lovely caramel apple teacake recipe. The brown sugar caramelises to create the slightly crunchy top, which gives way to a soft, sweet apple layer, then launches into a vanilla, yoghurty teacake finish. It’s a stunner.
Caramel apple teacake
Makes 8 serves
Takes 15 mins
Bakes 1 hour
• 130g softened butter
• ¾ cup brown sugar, loosely packed
• 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups wholemeal self-raising flour, sifted
• ¾ cup vanilla yoghurt
• 1 apple (granny smith is good), peeled, cored and finely sliced
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup extra brown sugar
• 20g extra butter, melted
Preheat fan-force oven to 170ºC. Grease and line a deep 20cm round cake tin.
Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and mix through. Gradually add the egg, beating well as you go.
Fold in the flour, then add the yoghurt and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
Starting in the centre, arrange the apple slices in a spiral. Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. Drizzle the melted extra butter over the lot.
Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin for about 10 minutes, before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
Notes
We sometimes make this cake with plain self-raising flour instead of wholemeal.
If you don’t have brown sugar, caster will do just fine.
It’s also nice to add a little nutmeg to the cinnamon for a change.
