Italian rustic apple cake

I survive Winter thanks to apples. I eat a lot of apples. I wanted to research once if you can eat too many. I didn't get a straight answer.

So, apple cakes are a natural choice. Especially those with more apples than batter. Just like the one I found today. Very easy, one bowl recipe, with the result that everybody but your cat will enjoy.

I just had a piece, a warm piece, the one from the picture. Delicious! Very delicate. The cake is cool now, but it's still impossible to transfer the whole cake onto a platter. The lightest apple cake I've ever eaten, even though it has almost 1 kg of fruit.

The taste is Italian. What can I say? Italian cakes often taste the best. They almost always have lemon zest, maybe that's the secret. This one also has vanilla sugar and cinnamon. Together with good apples, it's a lively and pleasant combination.

I'm not making lunch today. Hania approves.

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano

ingredients
700 g (1.5 lbs) apples, pealed, cored and cut in 3 mm (.2 inch) wages
100 g (7 tablespoons) butter, melted and cooled + extra for the baking form
2 eggs
200 g (1 cup) sugar
200 ml (5/6 cup) milk
200 g (1 1/3 cups) flour + extra for dusting the baking form
2 teaspoons (8 g) baking powder
1/4 (2 g) teaspoon salt
1 lemon, juice and the zest
16g (3 teaspoons) vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
+ cinnamon and powder sugar for finishing


directions
Preheat the oven to 180C/360F. Butter a 23 cm/9 inch spring round form, dust it with flour.

In a large bowl, place the cut apples with the juice from 1 lemon. First prepare the zest from that lemon.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat together eggs and sugars. Add the melted
butter. Add the lemon zest, cinnamon and milk. Combine it all with a rubber spatula. Add the flour mixture. Mix it with a spatula. Add the apples. Cover them all with batter.

Transfer everything into the baking form. Sprinkle powder sugar and cinnamon on top. 

Place it in the hot oven for 50-60 minutes. Bake until toothpick from the middle of the cake comes out clean. Because it's covered with cinnamon it's hard to see how brown the cake gets. So, the toothpick test is important. The cake is wet because of the apples, but the toothpick shouldn't have any moist batter.

Take it out of the oven. Let it cool. Great cake! Grazie Italia!