Sharlotka: Super easy tasty apple cake
Bonus: Because it's a traditional recipe the measurements and precise temperature are very forgiving. Feel free to add more/fewer apples, cut them into differently sized chunks, or anything like that. So long as you follow the recipe even roughly, you'll end up with something delicious.
You will need...
- 3–5 apples, depending on size (we used 5 apples here for I think a 9" tin, but it's up to you how appley you want things)
- 2 tbsp coarse semolina (can substitute flour)
- 1 tsp butter to grease cake tin
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar (probably any vinegar will do)
- A lot of cinnamon
- A cake tin
Instructions!
1. Peel and slice each apple into quarters, then cut each quarter into 3 segments (you'll end up with 16 slices per apple).
2. Grease cake tin with butter and sprinkle with a handful of semolina if you have it (traditional approach) or dust with flour if not.
3. Stick the apple slices into your cake tin, attempting a sophisticated layering technique and then giving up and just trying to layer them somewhat equally (my approach).
4. For the batter, put 1 cup sugar + 4 eggs in a big bowl and beat till fluffy. I think this is a main factor in how much it rises – one time I got distracted and beat them for like 5 minutes with an electric whisk, so the cake ended up super poofy.
5. Once egg/sugar mix is light and nice, whisk in 1 cup plain flour + 1 tsp of baking powder; separately, combine 1 tsp of white wine vinegar with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda so that it starts bubbling, then dunk that into your egg mixture too. Mix it all up.
6. Almost done! Go back to your apples and cover them in ground cinnamon. You think I mean "sprinkle a bit of cinnamon" – I don't, I mean cover. Like, you will ask yourself "wow, is this way too much cinnamon?" when you're doing it. It's not. You want to cover basically all the visible apple.
7. Pour your batter on top of the apples.
8. Bake at 180 fan until done! About 30–40 mins or when a skewer/knife you stick in it comes out clean :D
Enjoy! ❤️
Kate Bystrova