These days when I go to a coffee shop and ask for cake, more often than not I am served a piece that will require serious bike time to try and counter the impact on my hips! My hips really don't need any extra impact thanks. Often this Everest sized piece of cake comes with cream and ice cream. Why both? Why even one? Many cakes don't need it. Sometimes I wonder if it's there to help you slide the last few mouthfuls down more easily. Even if I share this piece of cake with a friend we both feel as if we've performed an Herculean task consuming it and vow as we finish that we'll not be eating dinner tonight! This is a lie but it makes us feel better at the time.
Don't get me wrong I like cake, I like it a lot, and there will be times when you need to make a bigger cake to feed a crowd, but I'm with Meg Ray. What I want is an 'elegant sufficiency', something that will let me balance my desire to be healthy while enjoying my life and not ending up as a heart attack statistic. I want proportion and beauty in equal measure. Good quality ingredients, put together with passion, in a size that is designed for real people.
When I was a kid my Mum used to bake a beautiful apple cake. It was only ever made in a seven inch cake tin. Cut into eight it fed six of us happily for dessert, often with some left over, and graced many an afternoon tea table and special celebration. Now we'd look at a seven inch tin and think it was small. After a serving I never felt I hadn't had enough or that I was robbed of an experience because of the portion size. It was delicious and full of intense apple and lemon flavours with a beautiful crisp, cake like crust and, if I remember correctly, went well with a small scoop of real vanilla ice cream. All in proportion. Balance and harmony.
Hence in line with my resolution this year to get some balance back in my pantry and freezer I have decided that this is the year of the six inch cake. Less is more, small can be better and balance is everything.
To celebrate this decision (and to needing to spend less time on the bike perhaps) I share my Mum's recipe, but I warn you it is an intuitive cake. Give it a go and you won't be disappointed. Oh, and it works perfectly in a six or seven inch tin.
Mum's Apple Cake.
Filling
550gm granny smith apples or any good cooking apple.
1 teaspoon of grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of butter
Peel and core apples, quarter and slice. Place in pot with butter, sugar and lemon rind. Add a little water if required and cook. When cooked drain off any liquid. This apple mix needs to be dryish. Leave to cool a little. If you like you can also add a little cinnamon to the apple. I prefer the lemon on its own.
Pastry
60gms/2 tablespoons butter
40gms/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Self raising flour.
Preheat oven to 320 degrees F/160 degrees C.
Grease and flour a six inch tin and line base with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar. I generally whisk this by hand in a bowl. Add vanilla and egg and whisk till it is well combined and light. Work in sufficient SR flour to make a workable dough. You are looking for a texture somewhere between cake and pastry. You want a smooth dough that doesn't stick to your fingers but is easy to work.
Roll out a little over half the dough and place in tin so it covers the base and come up the sides about four to five centimetres. Place the warm, drained apple in the pastry. You may not need all the apple as you don't want to fill higher than the pastry. Roll out the remaining pastry a little larger than the tin and place it on top of the apple, tucking in the edges, as if you were putting it to bed.
Bake slowly in oven on the middle shelf till nicely tinted. About 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stand in tin for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn onto a rack and invert right side up to cool.
Ice with lemon or passionfruit icing and serve with or without cream/ice cream.
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