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DessertsFrench
Invisible Apple Cake
Tissue-thin apple slices bound together with just enough custardy batter to hold them, baked until the edges caramelise and turn golden. Delicate, buttery, and not too sweet. Somewhere between a tarte aux pommes and a clafoutis, with pure apple flavour in every bite!
Prep25 minutes
Cook1 hour 45 minutes
Total2 hours 10 minutes
Servings6
DifficultyEasy
Ingredients
- 1 kg eating apples Braeburn,Cox, or Granny Smith work brilliantly
- ½ lemon juice of it
- 3 egg
- 50 gr caster sugar
- 80 gr plain flour
- 100 ml whole milk
- 25 gr unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- unsalted butter for greasing the tin
Equipment
Instructions
Prep your apples
- Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Peel, core and slice the apples as thinly as you can, 2–3mm, tossing them in lemon juice as you go to stop them browning.
Make the batter
- Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, about 3 minutes. Sift in the flour and salt and whisk smooth. Gradually add the milk, then the melted butter and vanilla. The batter should be smooth and about the consistency of double cream.
Combine everything
- Add all the apple slices to the batter and fold gently but thoroughly until every slice is coated. It will look like far too many apples for the batter.
Into the loaf pan
- Butter a loaf tin generously. Spoon in the apple mixture, pressing down and levelling the top. The tin will look full.
Bake until golden
- Bake for 45–50 minutes, until deep golden and a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Don't open the oven door for the first 30–35 minutes.
Cool and serve
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out. Serve warm or, better, at room temperature, when it cuts into tidy slices.
Notes
- Eating apples hold their shape; cooking apples collapse and release too much liquid.
- Don't panic at how little batter there is. It soaks into the apples as they bake, which is the invisible trick.
- Slice the apples as thinly and evenly as possible, ideally on a mandoline.
- Keeps 2–3 days covered, and is often better on the second day.
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