Simple Wholemeal Apple Cake (vegan)
Simple wholemeal apple cake – a moist, vegan wholemeal cake filled with fresh apple and spices; easy to make and the perfect mid-morning or afternoon snack.
Servings 6 people
Ingredients
- 3 medium (350 - 400g) sharp eating apples such as cox (unprepared weight)
- 225 g (2 cups) self-raising wholemeal flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 115 g (½ cup) vegan block butter (I use Naturli Vegan Block) (cold and cubed)
- 115 g ( ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) light brown soft sugar
- 160 ml (⅔ cup) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons demarera (turbinado) sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease an 18 cm / 7 in round, deep cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
- Core and dice the apples (peel them if you want), set aside.
- Mix together the flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles course sand and no lumps of butter remain.
- Stir in the sugar, then the apples. Mix in the milk to form a batter. The mixture should be quite stiff and may look a bit curdled, that is fine.
- Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and spread it level. Bake for about 1 hour, but start checking for doneness after 45 minutes. It should be firm and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Cover loosely with foil partway through baking if the top begins to darken too much.
- Remove the cake from the oven and immediately sprinkle with demarera sugar. Leave to cool in the tin for 20-30 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- For the best results follow the recipe closely and make it exactly as written. Changing any of the ingredients could affect the outcome of the cake.
- This is a delicate cake, especially when it is warm. All those juicy chunks of apple make it quite fragile so I really recommend using a springform or loose bottomed cake tin so that you can remove the cake from the tin without having to flip it out and risk it breaking.
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.