8.29.2010

APPLE SPONGE CAKE / QUATRE-QUARTS AUX POMMES


A couple of days ago I suddenly had a rush to bake and so I bought enough ingredients to make 2 cakes and 1 quiches (yeah, that happens to me once in a while!)
Like I posted before, I'm in my "apple" phase right now and so I remembered a recipe that I loved to make from when I was a teenager called Quatre-quarts aux pommes and the recipe comes from my mom's cooking bible called "La Cuisine: The Complete Book of French Cooking" by Valerie-Anne Letoile etc. Every time we've made something from this cookbook, it has always turned out delicious :)

So, here's the recipe for you guys to try out (especially since today's a Sunday!):

Apple Sponge Cake/Quatre-quarts aux pommes

300 g butter
300 g superfine (caster) sugar
300 g flour
pinch of salt
5 eggs
4 apples (I like apel malang)
vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
2. Cream the butter, then beat in the sugar, a pinch of salt and the eggs, one at a time. Continue beating until creamy. Add a few drops of vanilla extract. Finally, fold in the flour until the mixture is smooth and well blended.
3. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 26 cm cake pan (I used a rectangular pan), half filling it.
4. Peel and core the apples. Cut each into 8 segments and arrange on the batter in the pan.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees celsius. Bake for 15 minutes longer. Finally reduce the temperature to 180 degrees celsius and bake for a final 50 minutes or until the blade of a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool for 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan and leave until cold.