Thursday 28 February 2008

Another Birthday, Another Cake

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It’s been another manic week. I’m just sitting on a train on the way back home from work, trying to write this so I can upload it when I get in, as otherwise it’ll never happen. On Monday D. had surgery to repair an umbilical hernia, so I’ve been busy playing nurse, as well as having a lot on at work. I shouldn’t complain though, it’s good to keep busy I guess, but it has thrown my normal routine out of whack a bit.
There hasn’t been much cooking going on again this week and I have to admit that on the seat next to me I have a carrier bag containing two M&S pizzas, because all I want to do tonight is sit down on the sofa and watch the Masterchef Final and Ashes to Ashes.

The only thing worthy of mentioning this week so far is that one of my colleagues turned 50 on Sunday and since I seem to have become the resident cake baker at work, I made him a ‘Bayerischer Apfelkuchen’. It’s not complicated to make at all, but tastes great and the cheesecake-like layer in the middle makes it quite rich and moist, so definitely good enough for a birthday cake.

I love all kinds of apple cakes, apple pies and apple crumbles and one of the great things is that they easily available all year round.

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Bayerischer Apfelkuchen (Bavarian Apple Cake)

125gr soft unsalted butter
200gr 75gr caster sugar + 45gr sugar +75gr
150gr plain flour
1tsp vanilla extract
3tbsp seedless raspberry or apricot jam
225gr cream cheese
1 egg
4 medium sized tart apples
1tsp cinnamon
1 large handful of sliced almonds

Preheat your oven to 230C/Gas 8. Line the bottom of a springform baking pan with baking paper and grease the sides.

In a bowl cream the butter with 75gr sugar and 1/2tsp vanilla extract. Add the flour and mix until combined, the mixture will be a bit crumbly. Press firmly into the bottom of your springform and spread with the jam.

In a clean bowl mix the cream cheese, 45gr of sugar, the egg and 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Pour over the jam,

Toss the sliced apples with the remaining 75gr of sugar and the cinnamon until well coated and spread over the top of the cream cheese mixture, making sure they get distributed evenly.

Sprinkle with the sliced almonds.

Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 200C/Gas 6. Place the pan on a baking tray, to avoid any of the melting butter to leak into the bottom of your oven and smoke out your kitchen. (I'm speaking from bad experience.)

Bake until golden on top and the cheese mixture has set. Depending on your oven this should take 30 to 45 minutes. You can test it with a wooden toothpick.

Allow to cool before serving.




5 comments:

Marie Rayner said...

Oh Sylvie, that looks absolutely gorgeous! I Love German cakes. You have made me homesick for Germany now!

test it comm said...

That looks so good! Apples, cream cheese, and toasted almonds...mmm...

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

Wow! Lucky work colleagues!

Thistlemoon said...

What a beautiful cake Sylvie! Your colleagues are very lucky!

Welcome to The Foodie Blogroll!

Alison said...

This cake looks fantastic, and I really hope to try it soon. Like Marie, I love German cakes (fond memories of visits to Goettingen and Muenster as a teenager) and hope you'll have more recipes for them.