Some foods evoke potent memories of pleasure not simply for their flavor but for the moments that accompany them. A lovely dense, moist, and sweet coffee cake takes me back to happy mornings of coffee and comfy clothes, sitting around with loved ones having a slow morning and a long chat. This versatile cake is simple to make, hard to mess up, and could easily be used for a rich snack or a light dessert. When I serve this cake as a more traditional American coffee cake I like to accompany it with fruit. However if I am using it for a dessert all it needs is a dollop of freshly whipped sweet cream or better yet add a few tablespoons of rum into the cream before whipping it and this will add an element of glam and sophistication.
Ingredients:Streusel Topping-
1/4 cup fine white flour
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of cold butter (diced)
1 cup walnuts (chopped)
Apple Filling-
2 Apples (peeled, cored, diced)
2 T butter
2 T Whisky or Rum
Cake-
2 cup fine white flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (diced)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
Method:
1) Pre heat oven to 350F/180C, grease a bunt pan with flavorless oil or butter. You can just as easily use any cooking pan you fancy it will all work.
2) Streusel Topping-
By hand or in a food processor mix together all ingredients (except the walnuts) until you have a fine rubble. Then mix in the walnuts. Done!
3) Apple Filling-
Over medium heat cook apples and butter until soft but not browned. Just before finishing add rum cook for one minute giving it a good stir up. Done!
4) Cake-
Put all the dry ingredients into a food processor and blitz, then add the butter and blitz until incorporated. Mix the egg and milk together in a bowl then slowly add to the dry until the cake is just moistened (don't over mix). Done!
Really a food processor makes this cake an absolute breeze to make but you could easily do it by hand by first making a fine rubble out of the dry ingredients and the butter then adding the wet.
5) Assembly...
Spoon 2/3 of the cake batter into the pan using a spatula to spread it around. Then spoon the apples evenly around the cake batter. Sprinkle 2/3 of the streusel topping over the apples followed by the remainder of the cake batter. Gently ease it around and finally top with the rest of the streusel.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then ease a knife around the edges of the bunt pan and in the center ring. Invert a plate on top of pan and flip cake over then lay the cooling rack on bottom of upside down cake and flip right side up. Cool on cooling wrack. Slice and Enjoy.
