Auntie Loulla’s Amazing Apple Cake

 

Auntie Loulla (Loulla Astin) is my mother’s sister and the award winning restaurateur of the famous Kosmos Greek Taverna in Manchester. Her career has seen her cook on TV many times, including presenting her own cookery series on SKY and she was even invited to meet The Queen at Buckingham Palace. (She made the monarch laugh and even reminded her Prince Philip is of Greek descent). Only Auntie Lou!!

Here she shares her beloved Apple Cake recipe with you which is a special at the restaurant.

 

 

Photograph ©Peter Broadbent

Over to Lou:

Ingredients:

25g (8oz) self-raising flour
175g (6oz) margarine or butter, softened
175g (6oz) caster sugar
3 eggs
A few drops of vanilla extract

For the apple filling:
2–3 Cooking apples
1-2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons apple, apricot or strawberry jam
Icing sugar for dusting
1x23cm (9 inch) spring form cake tin greased and lined with greaseproof paper.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375f/ gas mark 5. Peel, core and slice the apples and cook them with the sugar, lemon juice and a little water until soft. Taste the apples and add more sugar if you feel it needs sweetening. Beat the margarine with the sugar and eggs one at a time. Sift the flour and beat until light and fluffy, adding the vanilla extract.

Spread 1/2 the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin and pile the cold apples on top. Spoon the jam in blobs on top of the apples and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and add the remaining cake mixture on top in 3 blobs. Place back in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cake is cooked and is golden brown.

Remove from the oven, let the cake cool, plating it carefully and sieve icing sugar on top. Serve the cake warm or cold with cream or ice cream.

Photo of Loulla ©Loulla Astin.

Recipe ©Loulla Astin.

Photo of the cake © Peter Broadbent.

Do also join Loulla’s private Facebook Group which has thousands of members: Loulla’s Recipe Share.