Gluten Free Italian Apple Cake



I made this cake one Saturday morning waiting for a friend to arrive for the weekend.  We’d devoured the whole thing by the time she left on Sunday afternoon.  It made perfect use of the seasons apples which take centre stage giving the cake a lovely moist texture.  I dialled back the sugar a bit from the original recipe and was pleased I did as the apples make it plenty sweet enough.  The cake works warm from the oven or cold after a spell in the fridge, either way it won’t hang around for long.  You can make the cake with almonds or flour or a mixture of the two as I did below.  We don’t seem to have almond flour in the UK.  It’s texture is finer than our ground almonds so that’s why I decided to make the cake with a combination. 

Recipe slightly adapted from Healthy Green Kitchen

3 eggs

100g unrefined brown sugar (I used demerara)

100g ground almonds

80g Gluten free flour

120ml milk (I used rice milk)

40ml butter melted (I used organic goat butter)

2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 apples, peeled and cut in to wedges.  (I used royal gala apples)

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C, 350°F

Grease or line with parchment an 8 inch spring form cake pan.  (mine was slightly bigger hence the thinner cake).

In a bowl combine the eggs and sugar.  Beat well until pale yellow in colour.  Use an electric mixer for this if you are lucky enough to have one.  Next slowly add the flour, milk and butter and continue to combine until well blended.  Add the baking powder and vanilla and continue to beat everything together until really well combined.

Pour the batter in to the prepared cake tin.  Arrange the apple slices in a circle starting in the middle and working outwards.  Bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in to the centre of the cake comes out clean.  The cake should be golden brown.

Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing it from the pan.  I managed to lose a bit of my edge at this point.  Dust with powdered sugar if you like and serve with ice cream or my favourite, natural yoghurt.  I stored the cake in the fridge to keep it moist.