Today I want to share a recipe for a dessert filled with Autumn vibes. We'll prepare a lightly cinnamon cake full of moist apples and cranberries, crunchy nuts and chocolate.
The cake is an incredible mix of flavours and textures. We have juicy apples that became subtly sweet in the oven, and lightly sour cranberries. Add to that crunchy nuts and chocolate, and the whipped cream that is the perfect bridge between cinnamon base and salted caramel.
You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.
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List of ingredients (18 x 28 cm baking tin)
Cake
- 100 g dried cranberries
- 300 g (~2 cups) flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 4 eggs
- 150 g (~3/4 cup) sugar
- 100 g butter
- 3 apples (350 - 400 g after peeling and coring)
- 100 g walnuts
- 100 g chocolate
Topping and decoration
- 300 ml whipping cream (36%)
- 150 g mascarpone cheese
- 20 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 100 g salted caramel
Salted caramel (~400 g)
- 200 g (~1 cup) sugar
- 90 g butter
- 150 g whipping cream (36 %)
- Salt, to taste
Method
- Optionally, prepare homemade salted caramel. Put 200 g fine white sugar into a thick-bottomed pot and heat it up over medium heat until it dissolves and becomes beautiful and golden. Don't stir sugar at first and let it melt in peace. Otherwise it could clump, which will make it much longer to make caramel and more difficult to reach desired consistency. Once you get a golden puddle in the middle of sugar you can start stirring it so it doesn't burn.
- Once sugar has completely melted, turn heat down to low and add 90 g cubed butter. Stir them only until they come together. It is important that you use a large pot. Sugar will bubble up once you add butter, so it may spill over if your pot is too small.
- Once sugar and butter combine, add 150 g whipping cream (36%) and stir again until fully combined. Both cream and butter should ideally be at room temperature, so remember to take them out of a fridge at least one hour ahead. This will make it easier for them to combine with sugar.
- Once you get a uniform liquid, add a generous pinch of salt to caramel, stir until liquid calms down and stops boiling, and take pot off heat. Pour caramel into a sterilised jar and set it aside to cool completely. Keep ready caramel in a fridge, in an airtight container.
- Put 100 g dried cranberries into a small bowl. Cover them with freshly boiled water and stir through them shortly to break up any lumps. Set cranberries aside for around 15 minutes. Drain them after this time on a fine sieve and set them aside to cool slightly.
- Sift 300 g wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 heaped tsp cinnamon and a small pinch of salt through a fine sieve to remove any lumps. Stir through the dry ingredients shortly with a whisk until they get evenly distributed.
- Pour 4 large eggs into a separate large bowl and add 150 g fine white sugar. Beat the contents of the bowl with an electric mixer until the batter doubles in volume and becomes thicker. I recommend starting at low mixer speed and increasing it gradually as eggs increase in volume.
- Once you get the right texture decrease mixer speed to medium and add 100 g cool melted butter into the batter. Pour butter slowly, in a thin trickle, while mixing the contents of the bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to the batter. Do it in three batches, a few tablespoons at a time, and combine the contents of the bowl carefully each time with a silicone spatula until you can no longer see raw flour. Once you add all of it batter will decrease in volume and visibly thicken up.
- Add around 400 g peeled, diced sour apples, soaked cranberries, 100 g roughly chopped walnuts and 100 g finely chopped chocolate to the batter. Stir through the contents of the bowl until batter covers fruit and nuts.
- Transfer the batter into a rectangular baking tin, 18 x 28 cm. The bottom of the baking tin should be greased and lined with baking paper. Patiently spread the thick batter across the surface of the baking tin, trying to distribute fruit and nuts evenly.
- Bake the cake in an oven preheated to 180 deg C, no fan, for around 40-45 minutes, until the cake becomes beautiful and golden, and a wooden skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean. It is not easy to find a place to test the cake! Once the cake is ready take it out of the oven and set it aside to cool completely. Two or three hours should be enough.
- Once the cake is cool, prepare the cream to decorate it. Pour 300 ml cold whipping cream (36%) into a large bowl. Add 150 g cold mascarpone cheese, 20 g icing sugar and a generous teaspoon of vanilla paste. Beat the contents of the bowl until stiff. I recommend starting at low mixer speed and increasing it gradually as cream increases in volume.
- Transfer whipped cream on top of the cake and spread it evenly across the surface. Put the cake into a fridge for about an hour for cream to set.
- Take cake out of the fridge, remove baking tin sides and decorate the cake with salted caramel. If you prepared the caramel in advance, it may be too thick to use it easily; in that case warm it up in a microwave oven or in a water bath, only until it becomes thinner, and set it aside for five minutes to cool so it doesn't melt the cream. I'm squeezing my caramel out of a piping bag in a diamond pattern, but you can cover all of cream if you prefer.
- Enjoy!
Approximate nutritional value
100 g
- 355 kcal
- Carbs: 34 g
- Fat: 23 g
- Protein: 5 g
- Fibre: 1 g
1 slice (recipe makes 15 slices)
- 444 kcal
- Carbs: 42 g
- Fat: 28 g
- Protein: 7 g
- Fibre: 2 g
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