Apple and Olive Oil Cake

A moist apple sponge sandwiched with a moreish maple cream cheese frosting

I love this apple and olive oil cake, not only for the delicious morsels of apples but for the utterly moreish maple cream cheese frosting.

The frosting is not overly sweet, and interestingly, instead of using icing sugar like most frostings, this one uses brown sugar, which gives wonderful caramel notes.

The olive oil in the cake keeps the sponge super light and moist, but also adds to the fruitiness of the cake.

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This recipe is closely adapted from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh.

APPLE AND OLIVE OIL CAKE

• 600g Grannysmith apples, plus 4 apples finely sliced
• 100g sultanas
• 275ml water
• 350g cake flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 200g castor sugar
• 150ml olive oil
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 egg whites only
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 100g pecan nuts

METHOD

1. Peel and core the apples. Dice them into 2cm cubes and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease and line the base and sides of two 20cm cake tins with baking paper.
3. Place the sultanas and 200ml of the water in a saucepan on low heat and let it simmer until all the water has been absorbed into the raisins, then set it aside.
4. Sift the flour, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
5. Place the whole eggs, olive oil, sugar, vanilla essence and lemon zest in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 7 minutes. The mixture should be light in colour, doubled in size and thickened a little.
6. Add in the apples, raisins and remaining 75ml water to this mixture and fold in.
7. Add in the sifted dry ingredients and gently fold to combine.
8. Whisk the egg whites (by hand, as it is so little in volume) until stiff peaks form. Then fold into the batter.
9. Place in a lined cake tin. In one of the tins, layer the sliced apples on the top, irregularly, to create a pretty design. This will be the top of the cake.
10. Bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. It may take a bit longer than this. Keep monitoring it every five minutes or so. If you find the apples beginning to brown too much, cover the cake with foil.
11. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

MAPLE CREAM CHEESE ICING

• 100g butter, at room temperature
• 100g brown sugar
• 85g maple syrup
• 220g cream cheese
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD

1. Beat the butter until slightly creamed.
2. Then add the sugar, maple syrup and vanilla essence and continue to beat.
3. Finally, gradually add in the cream cheese and beat until thick and smooth.
4. Once cooled, spread the frosting generously on the bottom layer, the place on the top layer which has the apple slices.
5. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar on the top.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com