Wednesday 29 January 2014

Another Apple Cake

As 'The Hairy Dieters Eat for Life' won over Rick Stein's 'India' for my Random Recipe this month, I decided to investigate the book further.



I'm not a huge fan of the Hairy Bikers, I have to say. While I'm more interested in the food than the appearance of most of the chefs on TV, the 'hairy' element is something that has always put me off.  That said, I've always quite liked what I've seen of the food the Bikers produce.

There are quite a lot of recipes in the book that look worth having a go, whether you're on a diet or not, and given that saving a few calories is always a good thing, I was particularly drawn to the section on cakes and sweet things.

I made the apple cake that is allegedly 229 calories a slice if you divide the cake between 12 people. Dividing between 12 might sound quite mean, but it's quite a big cake and there's plenty of flavour to give you a tasy mouthful, even if it is on the small side...

Spiced Apple Cake

250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinammon
1/2 tsp ground all spice
zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
100g plus 2 tbsp demerara sugar
200ml semi-skimmed milk
100ml olive oil (light - not extra virgin) or use sunflower
2 large cooking apples
Juice of 1 lemon

23cm springform cake tin, lined with greaseproof paper.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinammon and all spice, and lemon zest.

In another bowl or jug, whisk up the eggs, the 100g sugar, milk and oil.

Put the lemon juice into a bowl, then peel, core and thinly slice the apples into the bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir together, then fold in the apple slices.

Scrape into the prepared tin and sprinkle the remaining sugar evenly over the top, then bake for around an hour till it's golden and a skewer comes out clean.



If you're on a diet, eat as it is, but if you're not, add some cream...


13 comments:

  1. I agree, sometimes the HB's are more about them than the cooking but sometimes they do come up trumps with their food and this apple cake looks mightily delicious... this looks very much like an old fashion kind of school-dinners cake... always a good thing in my book x

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    1. Now you mention it, I reckon it would be great with custard.

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  2. Looks great! Are they winning you round do you think? Don't have the book, but as my mum and step dad are keen HB followers I've had a few Hairy Dieter meals recently. No cake though sadly, but the things I've tried have been pretty good really.

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    1. I haven't made anything else other than the chicken cordon bleu thing, but the curries look good.

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  3. It somehow seems wrong that there should be a cake recipe in a diet book!
    It looks delicious anyway and we love apple cakes in this house.

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    1. I know - it does seem wrong, but I usually work on the basis of a little bit of everything being OK, so I can get over it!

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  4. I like the HB's, I think they would be a right laugh to go for a beer with, but I know what you mean! I do however completely and utterly love the look of this. It looks AMAZING!! :)

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    1. It's very good. Make it. But I'm not sure I'm with you on going for a beer with the Bikers, you know...

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  5. Interestingly my copy of the book says 700g of apples about 500g peeled and cored. The result was a cake that after an hour and a half in the oven at reg 5 was uncooked and soggy, presumably too many apples therefore too much liquid!

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