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Words by Bettina Campolucci Bordi. Photo by Louise Hagger.
This is hands down my favourite cake recipe. The apples, the brown sugar and the caramelisation of both is a match made in heaven. This is also happens to be gluten-free!
Bettina Campolucci Bordi’s cookbook, Celebrate: Plant-Based Recipes for Every Occasion is available now.
Brown Sugar Spiced Apple Cake
Ingredients
For The Cake:
- 200 g (7 oz/2 cups) almond flour
- 3 tablespoons buckwheat flour
- 250 ml (8 1⁄2 fl oz/1 cup) plant milk
- 125 ml (4 fl oz/1⁄2 cup) maple syrup
- 125 ml (4 fl oz/1⁄2 cup) melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 vanilla pod (bean), split and the seeds scraped out, or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- pinch of pink Himalayan salt
For the topping:
- 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 4 apples, unpeeled and cored, then quartered and sliced into thin half-moons
To serve:
- vanilla custard
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/gas 4). Line a 20 cm (8 in) cake pan with baking parchment or use a good-quality silicone mould.
- Add all the cake ingredients to a food processor and blitz for about 5 minutes until everything is well incorporated. Pour the mixture into the cake pan.
- For the topping, mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl, then sprinkle a layer of the mixture over the cake. Arrange the apples neatly to cover the top of the cake, then sprinkle the remaining sugar and cinnamon over the apples.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes. Switch the oven off and leave the cake to sit in the oven for a further 15 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled pop the cake out of the pan onto a serving plate.