Winter winner: apple spice layer cake

Wintertime means comfort food. Yay! It’s also a great time to experiment with stronger flavours, such as spices, which can add a real depth to your cooking, and a zingy edge to otherwise overly sweet baked foods. Winter also means an abundance of apples, including the Royal Gala, which has overtaken other apples such as the Red Delicious in the popularity stakes. The mellow sweetness of this apple makes it a great snack to munch on, but also a good apple for baking with. That brings us to this masterpiece of an apple spice layer cake, courtesy of Panaceas Pantry and created for Aussie apples. Looks good enough to eat, doesn’t it? Which is handy, because that’s just what it’s made for.

Apple spice layer cake

You’ll need:

300g (2⅓ cups + 1 tsp) plain flour
¾ cup almond meal
3 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
⅓ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups milk of choice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1½ cups brown sugar
⅓ cup coconut yoghurt
¾ cup rice bran oil
2 Royal Gala apples, diced

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C, and grease and line 2 x 15cm round cake tins.

2. Make buttermilk by adding vinegar to milk, and set aside for 5 minutes.

3. In a large mixing bowl, sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices (except vanilla). Add almond meal and salt to the bowl, and mix until uniform. Set aside.

4. Add remaining wet ingredients to buttermilk (sugar, yoghurt, vanilla, oil). Whisk together, then pour into dry mix. Mix until just combined, then add apples, fold through.

5. Evenly spilt cake batter between the two cake tins, then bake for 60-65 minutes, covering with aluminium foil at the 45-minute mark.

6. Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Before layering the cake, cakes must be completely cooled (don’t cut before).

7. To assemble your layer cake, cut your cakes in half so that you have 4 even cake layers. Place the first layer on your desired cake stand/plate, then add a thick layer of cream. Add the second layer and repeat, until all your cake layers are stacked on.

8. Finish by covering the whole cake with a layer of cream. Enjoy as is, or with a cup of tea.