Apple raisins cake with cranberry crumble layer

This was the showstopper cake on Christmas day, and it almost took my 2 hours to come together. The effort was worth it as everyone loved it so much and also being a replacement for my usual plum cake of the season, this has kept it's word.

With the whole lot of apples , golden syrup , spices powder it stand stood in my Christmas spreads ramp so proud,making me feel proud too. The interesting part of it was the crumble layer where each bite will give you a crunch before you indulge in the apple layer. The crumble later was made of oats, whole wheat flour, and lots of dried cranberries. When it came out of oven the dried cranberries took the roasted flavor which enticed everyone towards it.

Over to recipe!

Ingredients

Cake layer:

Wheat flour - 2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Baking soda - 1 tsp
Baking powder - 3 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp
Ginger powder - 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
Cloves powder - 1/2 tsp
Brown sugar - 1 1/4 cup
Butter - 3/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Apples chopped - 3 nos (skin removed)
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
Eggs - 3 nos
Buttermilk - 1/4 cup

Golden syrup

Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Crumble layer

Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Oats - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1/4 cup
Dried cranberries - 1/2 cup

Method

Prepare golden syrup by combining all ingredients in a sauce pan until sugar dissolved and caramelizes. Add 1/4 cup water again to caramelized sugar and mix until smooth. Keep it Side to cool completely.

Sift together dry ingredients for cake layer and keep aside.

Beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Now add eggs and beat until pale and well combined. Add vanilla extract, then buttermilk and mix. Add the dry ingredients in parts, alternating with golden syrup. Then fold in chopped apples. If batter is too thick you can add buttermilk, but apples has a lot of water so avoid adding more water.

In a bowl mix all ingredients for crumb layer and rub in butter with hands until the flour takes a sandy texture. Add cranberries and give it a mix.

Arrange the crumble layer in top of the cake batter in a baking tray lined with parchment. Sprinkle granulated sugar on top for the caramelized flavor. Preheat oven to 180 C and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour or until the crumble layer is crisp and brown and tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

I served it with homemade apple sauce for that extra apple taste. This is a great treat to serve hot or cold.

Comments

Grilled Chicken in Quinoa Tortilla wrap

Healthy meal preparation is so satisfying, as we know we are feeding our loved ones with clean food. When I say clean food it does mean, non processed, with balanced nutrients, and not in expense of the taste. These healthy tortilla wraps are so yummy that you will not even imagine it has so many hidden good stuffs in it. I am like my mom, she is too smart to hide the good stuffs in whatever she prepares and we will not even know what we just ate had something which we hate if given in its form. Now I have acquired that smartness too and just few days back I prepared an Avocado Mango smoothie for one of my colleague and she told, "I hate Avocados! My mom would be surprised if she comes to know that I had Avocado. But how yummy your smoothie is ! " I was glad that I could make someone eat a healthy thing which they hated ever, and my hiding skills worked out. The same lady was fooled by my papaya halwa, she is a papaya hater too :P Fooling people is good som...

Ayala Pollichathu - Mackerel roast in plantain leaves

This is yet another traditional Kerala recipe, in which fish is roasted in plantain leaves. There is a two step process in cooking fish, first by shallow frying and then roasted inside a plantain leaf covered with masalas. So my experience with pollichathu was with Karimeen alone until this time, my favorite fish, which is called Pearl spot in English. All these while I haven't tried any other fish for this recipe. So let me tell you the story of how Ayala came into picture :D This happened on one fine day, my mom in law was telling me that the women who brings fish has brought lots of Mackerel and many other fishes and convinced her to buy a lot of them. So she was in a confusion on what will we do with all these, as weekend was almost going to finish and everyone of us moving to different places. And the same curry or fry would be boring and won't be appreciated by the men's league at home :D Then I went for helping her with the fish dilemma, she was having and...

Bionico - Mexican Fruit Dessert

I was looking for a dessert which is simple and healthy for today and what came to my mind was Parfait. But the day was Mexican themed and I didn't want to deviate for the dessert part and spoil my theme plan ;) I was looking for similar desserts of Mexican origin, coz I wanted an easy healthy option and has base ingredients which I already have at home. My search for the recipe ended in this great dessert from Mexico, The Fruit Bionico, which resembles parfait in many ingredients, just some difference in some of them. And I found an interesting factor in it and that strengthened my decision to go on with this. Yes, that is nothing but, our own freshly grated coconut :P Bionico is on sweeter side when compared to Parfait because of its sweetner condensed milk. I had my jars saved from Frozen bottle ice cream cakes, and that helped me to give my Bionico that ramp ready look. After the layers were set up, I was going crazy with the photos, as the beauty was looking so pr...

The Pink Café

Search This Blog