German Apple Cake
This Versunkener Apfelkuchen - German Apple Cake recipe results in a simple decoration of thinly sliced whole apple quarters on top of a simple butter and egg cake batter. The visual beauty of this cake takes the casual snack cake up a notch.
Servings 8
Calories 335kcal
Ingredients
- 2 medium apples peeled, cored and quartered
- 28 grams / 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 26 grams / 2 tablespoons superfine/caster sugar
- 125 grams / 4.4 ounces butter softened
- 100 grams / ½ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 165 grams / 3 large eggs room temperature and separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 240 grams / 1 ½ cups plain flour
- 8 grams / 2 teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
- Greaseproof a cake tin and preheat the oven to 180°C/350F.
- Carefully, cut slits halfway through each apple quarter, leaving ¼ inch uncut nearest the core section.
- You want the quarters to remain whole, so carefully slice without cutting all the way through.
- Place the sliced quarters in a bowl with the lemon juice and sugar, stirring to coat and set aside.
- Place the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, approximately 1 ½ minutes if using a hand beater.
- Add the vanilla extract and egg yolks and beat until well combined, approximately 1 minute if using a hand beater.
- In a separate bowl, place the flour and baking powder and stir to combine.
- Add the dry mixture in thirds to the butter mixture until just combined and no dry portions remain in your bowl.
- Place the egg whites into a separate bowl and beat until stiff.
- Spoon a third of the cake batter into the stiff egg whites and fold through until combined and no lumps remain.
- Repeat with the remaining cake batter in a further third and fold through until the mixture is fully combined.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and spread out evenly.
- Press the apple quarters into the cake in your chosen pattern and place in the oven to bake until a skewer comes out clean and it is golden on top, approximately 50 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool.
- Slice and serve as is or with a little cream.
Notes
- Tip for slicing your apple quarters without cutting through: Slicing the apple quarters without cutting through is best done by placing the apple quarter, core side down onto your chopping board and starting from one side and slicing the slits carefully from one side to the other (e.g. if you're right handed slicing from the left side to the right side of the quarter), this helps keep the slices as consistently fine as possible and gets you moving into a rhythm.
- Heavy cake batter: The cake batter is not runny here and the pieces of soft apple therein are the star, however, it can be a cake more on the slightly dry side if you don't have three large eggs - suggest using four medium eggs as this is one of the few ingredients providing moisture in this cake.
- How to lay out your quarters: If you were to google the name of this cake you'd find that everyone places the apple quarters differently into their cake, therefore the lack of directions when it comes to pressing the quarters into the batter, I prefer beginning with the outer edges of the cake and working in and didn't want to overwhelm the eye, therefore opted to leave the center, apple free. There are no rules here though, go wild and place them where you wish.
- Size of cake tin for this cake: The cake was baked in a 20cm or 8 inch cake tin.
Nutrition
Calories: 335kcal