APPLE CRANBERRY CAKE WITH CRANBERRY SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
Note 1 cup = 240ml (American standard cup measure used)
For the Cake
● Wheat Flour ¾ cup
● Brown Sugar ¼ cup + 1 tbsp for the cake; additional 1 tbsp to coat the apples and cranberries
● Milk ¼ cup (+ 1 tbsp in case you need to use if batter is thick)
● Oil or melted butter 2 tbsp
● Baking powder ½ tsp
● Baking soda ¼ + 1/8 tsp
● Salt ¼ tsp
● Cinnamon powder ½ tsp
● Dry Ginger Powder ¼ tsp
● Nutmeg powder ¼ tsp
● Vanilla Essence ½ tsp
● Peeled and finely chopped apples ½ cup (about 1 medium sized apple)
● Dried cranberries ¼ cup
For Garnishing
● 1 medium Apple - thinly sliced (no need to peel)
● 1 tbsp cranberries
● For the Cranberry Sauce
● Dried Cranberries ¼ cup
● Sugar 2 tbsp
● Lemon juice ½ tbsp
● Water ¾ cup
● Corn flour ½ tbsp
● Water (to make corn flour slurry) 2 tbsp
● Red food colour (optional)1 drop
● Prepare a 6-inch cake tin by greasing the tin with butter and dusting with flour. Also line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 180 C.
● Heat the milk and sugar just until the sugar dissolves (no need to boil the milk, just warm it up to quickly dissolve the sugar). Let it cool down.
● Until the milk cools down, combine and sieve all the dry ingredients together – flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices (cinnamon, dry ginger, and nutmeg powder). Keep it aside.
● Rub the additional brown sugar and some of the spices to the apples and cranberries as well as to the sliced apples that are to be used for garnishing.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
●Add the dried cranberries, water, lemon juice and sugar to a saucepan and let it come to a boil. Keep stirring from time to time.
●You will see that slowly the water starts to thicken and become like a syrup. Takes about 5 to 7 minutes. At this stage make a slurry of the corn flour and water and add it to the mixture.
●Let the mixture come to a boil and thicken well. The mixture should be thick but still have a flowing consistency. It will thicken a little bit more as it cools down.
●Switch off the flame and let the mixture cool down. Once cooled, add the red food colour if you wish to so the sauce gets a nice red colour.
●Warm a slice of the cake, top it with some vanilla ice-cream and cranberry sauce.
METHOD
● To the milk and sugar mixture, add oil and vanilla essence and mix well.
● Now add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two batches. Mix well using cut and fold method. Do not over mix otherwise the cake will become tough.
● Add the chopped apples and cranberries to the batter and mix well. This batter is thick and of dropping consistency. However, if you feel it is too thick, then add extra 1 or 2 tbsp of milk.
● Drop the batter into the prepared 6inch pan. Nicely level the batter in the pan. Garnish with the sliced apples and few cranberries.
● Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick or skewer inside to check if done.
● Let the cake cool in the tin for 5-7 minutes before de-moulding and place on a cooling rack to cool.