Years ago I bought a small tourist office-issue cookbook at the village near our friends’ place in Tuscany. It had a simple cake recipe from Pisa, which I made, then over the years have played around with. (The cardamom and almonds in this are my idea.) It is an old fashioned Italian way of making a fresh fruit cake/pudding. (It’s good cold, with a coffee) and is just a batter holding together lots of sliced apples. I have made it with pears as well. If substituting fruit, don’t use anything too juicy as the juice can inhibit cooking. It’s great warm with that Italian gift to the world, mascarpone.
Ingredients
| 100 g | Butter |
| 100 g | Caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling |
| 3 | Eggs |
| 1 tsp | Vanilla extract |
| 1 tsp | Cardamom seeds |
| 100 g | Flour |
| 1 tsp | Baking powder |
| 4 large | Apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly (Main) |
| 100 g | Sliced almonds, plus extra for sprinkling |
| 150 g | Mascarpone, beaten |
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Directions
- Butter and paper the base of a 20cm diameter loose-bottomed cake tin. Heat the oven to 180C.
- Beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat the eggs in one at a time. Stir in the vanilla, cardamom seeds, flour and baking powder, then stir in the apple slices and the almonds. Allow to sit for 10 minutes, sprinkle it well with sugar and with the extra almonds then place in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes or until very well cooked.
- Remove from the oven and serve in wedges warm or cold.
