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.
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I love your wonderful recipes, tried the apple cake a few times earlier and it was perfect. Thank you for sharing it!
Thank you, that one is my aunt’s, wonderful huh!
That looks and sounds absolutely incredible!! I’ll be bookmarking this to try out 🙂 thank you for sharing! X
Pleasure, my Auntie’s recipes are amazing x
Thanks for your lovely comment Lancslass, Auntie Loulla is a fantastic cook and her series was fabulous. I don’t think she did publish a cookbook. Thanks again for your comment x
Honestmum, I used to watch your auntie all the time on TV. I think she is a brilliant cook, and love her recipes. I wrote them all down at the time, but sadly I have lost them. Did she ever publish her cookery book Kosmos Kitchen or has she ever published a cookery book. Would love to buy it if she has.
Lancslass
This looks fantastic. I may try and cook this for the gf next weekend 🙂
More foodie posts please!
Duncan
@Duncan thanks for your lovely comment. Do try it. Sure your girlfriend would love it. Lots of food posts here every thursday so you can look back in the archives and ‘tune in’ every Thursday for a new one each week. So pleased you are enjoying them!
Yum, I am going to have to frequent Loulla’s place when we move 🙂
@Alexander you must and please say you are a friend of mine. It is a gorgeous restaurant x
wow what a cool Auntie. And what a great recipe x
@Susan thanks lovely, she is amazing. I’ll never forget how she came to see me when Oliver was born and cooked me the most yummy food you could imagine. Hope you make the apple cake x
I am a sucker for a good slice of apple cake. My favourite is in winter is apple strudel (you can take the girl out of Austria…) and in summer a classic tarte tartin a la Francois Bernard: http://cheznatthou.canalblog.com/archives/tartes_sucrees/index.html
@Metropolitan Mum-totally agree and my part French husband makes the most amazing tarte tartin!
This is definitely going to be one to try at the Pantry! I’m a sucker for apple cake! Yum!
@Chloe let me know how you get on, it really is the most delicious apple cake I’ve ever eaten!