Apple cake

The apple cake is, for me, the basics of cakes (even before the chocolate cake !). It's pretty easy to bake, but so good ! What takes the longest it to cut the apples (but sometimes we gotta do some efforts to get what we want, right ?). This recipe is perfeclty moist, the apple bits are mostly on top of the cake (because I cut them in small pieces and not in big ones) and they make a nice layer of deliciousness on top. Here is the recipe !

 

Heat the oven at 175°C.

This recipe is good for one enormous cake (or two medium ones, or a big one and a smaller one, or ... well you got what I mean :) I made the one you see on the photos plus a smaller one with those proportions)

- 3 big apples
- some lemon juice
- 250g butter (softened, so take it out of the fridge a bit in advance)
- 160g sugar
- 2 sachets vanilla sugar
- 1 sachet of baking powder
- 425g flour
- 150 ml milk
- 5 eggs (medium/big)
- a bit of salt
- a bit of cinammon

The steps :

- Peel and cut the apples in small bits. Put some lemon juice on them.
- Mix together the softened butter, the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the salt
- Add the eggs and mix
- Add the milk and mix
- Add the flour, the baking powder and the cinammon
- Finally, add the apples to the dough, mix a bit and pour everything in the cake form

Bake for 40 minutes (or more or less depending of the shape of your cake form)

After the cake has completely cooled down, you can add a bit of icing on top :

- 65g of icing sugar
- 10g os lemon juice

Add lemon juice or sugar to adjust the consistency. Then, pour the icing in zigzags on top of the cake. (You can also double the proportions and cover the whole cake, but I think the lemon would cover too much of the cake taste.) It's ready !

Enjoy !

Delicious lemon (or orange) cake

I made this recipe fro the first time a few months ago and I think that since that moment, it has been the recipe I have used the most ! It´s a really delicious lemon cake, where the acidity is balanced by a good amount of sugar (no ! don´t run !). The texture is really perfect. You can easily remplace lemon by orange and have an equally perfect orange cake (which is a bit more surprising than a lemon cake !). The recipe comes from  La Cuisine de Bernard (in french) and here is my version of it :


For one delicious cake

- 200g sugar
- 1 packet vanilla sugar
- 120g melted butter
- 3 big eggs
- 150g flour
- 100 ml lemon/orange juice
- the zest from a lemon or an orange (bio is better)
- 1/2 cc baking powder
- a pinch of salt

The recipe is quite simple. Mix and add, in this order :
- the melted butter, the sugar, and the vanilla sugar (don´t overwhip it, just mix it a bit)
- the eggs
- the floud, baking powder and salt
- the lemon/orange juice and zest

There is one thing to pay attention to if you want to obtain the right texture, which is thick and moist (but not too much either) : don´t whip too much, specially when mixing together the butter and sugar.

I usually put a bit more lemon juice than the original recipe. I don´t always have the time to zest the lemon/orange, so I sometime don´t put any in the recipe (although then, the cake can taste a bit too sugary, so I put more lemon juice).

It´s really good when you replace the lemon juice by orange juice, but the taste is a bit less pronounced. So I use sometimes Grand-Marnier (an orange liquor) : 80 ml of GRand-Marnier and 20ml of lemon juice (for acidity).

I recommend using a round pan, and not a rectangular one : with the round pan, the cake will be flatter and will bake more evenly, when the cake will most probably be overbaked in some parts in the rectangular pan. I use a 28 cm diameter form and I bake the cake for 35 minutes at 170°C.

When the cake has cooled enough, pour some topping on it :

- 130g icing sugar
- 25 ml lemon/orange juice or Grand-Marnier

Version à l'orange

I use sometimes lemon juice for the topping, sometimes orange juice, sometimes liquor, to vary the flavors. You can totally use a lemon topping for an orange cake, it will be delicious !

You can decorate with some thin zests, candied orange/lemon ...

Enjoy !

Gâteaux au citron (ou à l'orange)

J'ai découvert cette recette il y a quelques mois, et je crois bien que c'est devenue la recette que j'ai utilisée le plus depuis ! Originellement une recette de gâteau au citron, avec une texture vraiment parfaite (suffisamment dense mais tout de même légère), qui se décline facilement à l'orange. La recette vient de La Cuisine de Bernard et voici ma variante :

Pour un gâteau

- 200g de sucre
- 1 sachet de sucre vanillé
- 120g de beurre fondu
- 3 gros oeufs
- 150g de farine
- 100 ml de jus de citron / jus d'orange
- le zeste d'un citron
- 1/2 cc de levure
- une pincée de sel

La recette est simple, mélanger et ajoutez dans l'ordre :

- le beurre fondu, le sucre et le sucre vanillé

- les oeufs

- la farine, levure et sel

- le jus de citron et les zestes

L'astuce pour garder la texture dense et moelleuse est de ne pas battre trop la pâte. Mélangez le minimum possible, et résister à la tentation de battre furieusement le sucre et le beurre !

Je mets un peu plus de jus de citron. Je n'ai pas toujours le temps de zester les citrons/orange, donc parfois je m'en passe (et je mets un peu plus de jus de citron, pour l'acidité).


J'ai testé avec le jus d'orange : c'est bon, mais ça a clairement moins de goût qu'avec du Grand-Marnier ! Je mets donc environ 80 ml de Grand-Marnier et 20 ml de jus de citron pour la version orange gourmet.

Je conseille chaudement de réaliser ce gâteau dans un moule rond, et non un moule à cake. Il cuit plus vite et plus uniformément et c'est plus facile de le cuire jusqu'au point de mollitude parfait. Avec un moule d'environ 28 cm de diamètre, comptez 30 minutes de cuisson à 170°C.

Et n'oubliez pas le glaçage :

- 130g de sucre glace
- 25 ml de jus de citron / orange / Grand-Marnier

Version à l'orange

Je varie un peu le liquide du glaçage, et il m'arrive donc de mettre un glaçage au citron sur un gâteau à l'orange et vice-versa. Parce que c'est bon.

Vous pouvez décorer avec des zestes fins, ou des bouts d'orange confite ou de citron confit.

Bon appétit !