Amazing Apple Cake

I gather inspiration to cook from all sorts of places, but my favorite of late as been internet videos. When you watch someone put together a recipe in 5 minutes, it looks so easy! Of course, it takes much longer when you attempt to do it on your own. That's exactly what I discovered when I made this delicious Apple Cake. It looked so effortless when Fabio did it on his show! To be honest, it really isn't all that difficult, but I did run into some snags when I tried to 'puree' the apples in my food processor. I guess I'm still getting used to it since I took it out of the box a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, this cake turned out very nicely. After sticking it in the oven, I found out that a friend had used the same recipe just a few days before me.  I was told that the cake would turn out 'soft and custard-like' rather than cake-y. This proved to be the case with mine as well, even though I used one less apple. I think if I were to make this cake again, I would add a little more flour (doesn't 1 cup seem like a scant amount?).

Ingredients:

3 ripe Red Delicious apples, peeled and cored

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs, plus one yolk

¾ cup granulated sugar

zest of one orange

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp golden brown sugar

powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round springform pan.

2. In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Set aside.

3. In a food processor, pulse apples until you get a chunky puree. You should have about 3 cups of apple puree. Set aside. (Note: as the apples sit, they will start to brown. This is just oxidization, and is perfectly normal.)

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add eggs, sugar, and beat on medium until incorporated. Add orange zest and vanilla and beat on low speed, increasing to medium, then high, until the eggs are foamy and light-yellow in color.

5. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the olive oil in a steady stream.

6. Add pureed apples and mix until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and mix again on low speed until all ingredients are evenly incorporated into the batter. Be careful not to over-mix!

7. Gently pour the batter into the prepared springform pan.

8. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar. This will create a nice crunchy top crust as it bakes into the batter.

9. Bake for 1 hour, then cool in the pan for 10 minutes. 

10. To serve, remove the sides of the pan and place on a platter. Dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Yield: 8-10 servings

Recipe by:

Fabio Viviani

(You can view the video of the original recipe on Yahoo Shine here.)