One Bowl Apple Tea Cake

Flavour: Buttery-rich cake with bright freshness of the apples and a hint of spice.

Texture: Once baked the exterior has a buttery, slightly crispy texture but the interior is soft and moist.

Time & Difficulty: 1/5. This recipe is really simple just mix, proof, dump into and bake. You’ll have a delicious cake in around 1 hour!

Versatility: Very! Don’t like Apples? Try nectarines or peaches. So many fruits and berries work nicely.

Salted butter

A good butter brand is best because the base of this cake is basically a rich yellow ‘butter’ cake. I use good quality lightly salted grass-fed butter, therefore, no salt is added to this recipe. Yes, you can use unsalted butter but add 1/4-1/2 tsp salt.

Sugar

You’ll use sugar in two places for this cake: in the batter and sprinkled on top. I prefer to use a fine caster/bakers sugar in the cake as it creams nicely with the butter and dissolves quicker. Then top with a coarse raw or turbinado sugar to give some nice crunch and bakery-style effect.

Vanilla extract

Vanilla extract is not necessary for the structure of this or any baking recipe. However, leaving it out will change the flavour, some recipes more that others. Vanilla in baking is like adding salt to savoury foods, it enhances all the other flavours in the recipe. Without it, cookies and cakes don’t have the richness that we know and love. Extract or Vanilla bean paste is what I use and recommend. Extract is a natural product, but essence is synthetic and doesn’t have the rich flavour you need.

Large eggs

Large eggs are always recommended when baking so that they give consistent results every time and you avoid having an ‘eggy’ taste. Use eggs in cartons labelled “large eggs” which are 55 – 60g / 2 oz each. This is an industry standard and most international bakers’ recipes use this size. In a pinch and have larger eggs? Crack an egg into a bowl, whisk then measure out 50 ml / 48-50 grams. Ta-dah!

Plain flour

Nothing fancy here, just your good ole all-purpose/plain flour. This recipe is old school but that being said if you want, you can swap out for a gluten free blend! Or, if you want to make it healthy-ish, you can try out a wholemeal/wheat flour too! Be aware that different flour blends may create different results therefor you may need to tweak them.

Baking powder

Baking powder is the classic leavener you’ll need when it comes to most cakes, cupcakes and muffins. The ratio of flour to baking powder is lower to give you just enough aeration but leaving with you a slightly denser cake.

Granny smith apples

Growing up that these were the ONLY apples to use for baking by my grandma. The crisp, slightly sour flavour works great with baked goods as they tend to hold their shape really when they cook. In a pinch, nearly any apple will work though.