Recpie: Apple, Rye & Rosemary Cake

I’ve been experimenting lots with using different flours in my sweet bakes this year, it adds a bit of goodness to cakes and lots of additional flavour. In this recipe the rye flour and the olive oil give the cake a nutty, almost spicy flavour and the apple keeps everything moist. otherwise I find bundt cakes can sometimes end up a bit dry as there is much cake to relatively little icing.

If you don’t have a bundt tin you could divide this between two 8 inch round cake tins and make a layer cake, perhaps sandwiched with some apple jelly and vanilla buttercream. You will need to reduce the baking time, the cakes should cook in about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you could divide this between two 900g (2lb) loaf tins – but use small-ish 2lb loaf tins, I find loaf tins, despite having standard sizes vary massively in how much volume they hold. The batter should come 3/4 of the way up the tin.

If you don’t have apple jelly then you can make a glace icing with a bit of lemon juice instead.

Makes one large bundt cake, using a 9inch (23cm) bundt tin mould

Oil and caster sugar for lining the mould
300g light brown sugar
5 eggs
150g self-raising flour
150g wholemeal rye flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
300g apple, peeled and chopped into small cubes
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
275ml Olive oil
50ml milk

For the icing:
100g icing sugar
2 teaspoons apple jelly
Boiling water

Preheat the oven to 170°Celsius (fan). Oil the bundt cake mould with olive oil and then sprinkle over caster sugar, making sure the whole inside of the mould is covered in sugar

Put the sugar and eggs in the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, mix for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Alternatively you can do this in a bowl with an electric whisk or by hand with a whisk and lots of effort.

Weigh the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and rosemary into a bowl and gently whisk to mix together and remove any lumps. Add the apple to the flour and toss to coat. Add the flours and apple to the egg and sugar mix and fold together. Then add the olive oil and gently mix together until all combined. Add the milk. The batter should be a reluctant dropping consistency, add a little more milk if you think you need it.

Put the batter into the bundt tin and then put it in the oven. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

Take the cake out of the oven, run a knife around the edge of the tin to release it and almost immediately invert it onto a cooling rack. It is important to do this quickly, while the sugar you used to line the tin is still hot and molten. Give the cake a gentle shake to help release it, but sometimes I find just leaving it for a minute or two means it will release itself through the power of gravity.

Allow to cool then ice. To make the icing put the icing sugar and apple jelly in a small bowl and then add the boiling water by the teaspoon until you have a thick, drizzleable consistency. Drizzle over the cooled cake, trying to drip down the curves of the bundt cake. Decorate with sprigs of rosemary and tiny crab apples if you have them.