Apple, Honey and Poppy Seed Cake
Posted on May 11th, 2020
I’m sure I’m not alone in turning to baking in recent weeks – it’s a comforting and delicious hobby. I have been sharing lots of videos and recipes lately for making sourdough to encourage you with your at-home bread baking efforts. But today I have something a little sweeter. This apple cake was a spontaneously made up recipe – I shared it on Instagram recently and you asked for the recipe, so here we are!
In the current sitation with the UK on lockdown, I didn’t want to make a special trip to the shops so I just tried to use up what I already had. I tend to keep ingredients like ground almonds (almond flour), brown sugar and poppy seeds in my kitchen cupboard all the time because I love the extra flavour and texture they bring to cakes, as well as adding more nutrition, to make it a little more healthy. But if you don’t have these, never fear! You can still make a delicious apple cake even without them.
When you get more confident at baking you will discover that the possibilities are endless! You can combine ingredients in different ways. Each combination will give distinctive results. It also means you can adapt recipes for people on special diets, such as vegans or those with allergies.
For example:
- Adding ground almonds or almond flour makes cakes more dense and moist. But if you don’t have ground almonds, you can use more self-raising flour instead.
- Brown sugar is also moister with a deeper flavour, but you could use caster sugar as an alternative.
- Poppy seeds add a little crunch and texture to the apple cake. They could be swapped for flaxseed or chia seeds, or just leave them out if you don’t have any of these.
- No eggs? No problem! There are a variety of different egg substitutes you could try. This is also handy to know if you’re baking for vegans or someone with an egg allergy.
- Honey can be swapped for maple syrup – again this is a great vegan alternative for someone who avoids animal products.
- For a dairy-free option, use a dairy-free spread instead of margarine or butter.
How to Make Apple Cake
Apple, Honey and Poppy Seed Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 125 g brown sugar
- 130 g margarine or butter
- 85 g poppy seeds
- 110 g ground almonds
- 130 g self-raising flour
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 glug rapeseed oil
- 2 small apples
- 1 lemon (zest and juice, divided)
- honey
- mixed spice
- 30 g mixed berries
For the drizzle
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1-2 tbsp brown sugar or honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
- Add the brown sugar to a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon to get rid of any lumps. Add the margarine or butter and mix together until light and creamy.
- Add the poppy seeds, ground almonds, flour, beaten eggs, zest of the lemon, vanilla essence and rapeseed oil and mix well.
- Peel the apples, remove the cores and chop into small cubes. Place into another bowl and mix with some lemon juice, honey and mixed spice.
- Add the apples to the cake mixture along with the mixed berries and carefully fold in.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.
- Prepare the drizzle by mixing a little lemon juice with some brown sugar or honey.
- When cooked, leave the cake in the tin and prick all over with a fork. Pour the drizzle over the top. Leave for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and allow to cool on a rack.
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