A few weeks ago, a friend of mine tweeted about her mother’s German apple cake and she described so deliciously. I think the coarse sea salt sprinkled over the cake cake is what sold it for me.

I asked her if her mother would agree to be a guest blogger on The Oven Experiments and she did!

I drafted a couple of questions to send to her mother about the cake.

What is the name of the cake?

• German Apple Cake

Did you find the recipe in a book? On a website? TV? Or did your come up with the recipe?

• I found the recipe in a cookbook by Lucinda Scala Quinn. I bought it after watching her cooking show on TV. The book is called Mad Hungry. 

If taken from somewhere, how did you modify the recipe to make it yours?

• I haven’t modified the recipe, I follow the same one that’s in the book

Why did you choose this cake?

• I wanted to try a new dessert and this one seemed easy to make. The end result turned out to be very good.

Any memories attached to it? Or a story behind it?

• I liked Lucinda’s simple way of cooking healthy, homey food for her family and I enjoyed watching her show because she would
  sometimes turn cooking into a family activity where her boys and mum would help her out in the kitchen.

Would you like to add anything?

• The only thing I think that is missing in her book is that there aren’t a lot of pictures so you would have to imagine what the dish
  is going to look like.

Kindly list the ingredients and clear steps for making the cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 & 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 to 4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith, Cortland, or Winesap

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375F (190 degrees Celsius). Butter an 8 inch square pan or equivalent size baking dish
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of
  the sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. 

• Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
• In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon. Squeeze lemon juice into a medium bowl. Peel, core,
  and slice the apples into the bowl. Add the cinnamon-sugar mixture and toss to thoroughly coat each apple slice. 

• Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter in overlapping rows, pressing lightly into the batter.

• Bake for about 45 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Thank you Friend’s Mom for sharing this wonderful recipe with us! It looks like the perfect weekend treat. I will definitely try it once Ramadan is over.