Upside Down Caramel Apple Cake

January 16, 2012

Caramel Apple Cake Recipe

Whenever I spot an apple recipe in a book, it gets bookmarked. Especially lately. I’ve been consuming apple desserts as if they’re they only kind available: apple tart, apple strudel, green apple sorbet, apple cake, apple bread. Anything at all made with apple is picked up without a second thought.

I’d bookmarked this recipe in Falling Cloudberries (one of my favourite cookbooks!) a while ago and I finally got around to making the cake a few weeks ago for the first time when we had friends over for dinner. I thought it was a bit much for 4 people, but it got over sooner than I imagined. I made it again, because I just had to share the recipe with you.

Caramel Apple Cake Recipe

It’s an incredibly simple recipe: You cut up the apples and lay them in the baking dish, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and pour over the cake batter and pop it into the oven. One thing to be sure of it to always cut the apples much larger than you think is necessary. They cook down quite a bit, so it’s important that by the end of baking the apple chunks are substantial (I used small golden apples so I quartered them). As per the book, this isn’t meant to be an upside down cake, but I did just that so that the apples could be doused in caramel sauce. Now, about the sauce: if you’d like the sauce to seep through the cake and flavour it, pour it when the cake is still warm. If you want the caramel sauce only to sit on the apples, then wait for the sauce and cake to cool completely.

Caramel Apple Cake Recipe

Caramel Apple Cake

Yield: 9-10 servings
Adapted from: Falling Cloudberries (USA | UK | India)

Ingredients:
3-4 apples (I used 7 small Golden apples), peeled and cut lenghtwise
1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
7 tbsp / 100g butter, softened
1 cup / 200g sugar, plus a little more for sprinkling
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 2/3 cup / 200g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup / 80ml milk

Topping: Caramel Sauce

Equipment:
A 9 inch square pan or a 10” springform cake pan.

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Grease and flour the baking pan.
  2. Arrange the apples into the pan so that the sit tightly. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
  3. In a bowl, using a stand mixer or an electric mixer, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla, followed by the egg. Mixing them in one at a time, until the mixture is soft and fluffy.
  4. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg and butter mixture. Finally, stir in the milk until it forms a consistent batter.
  5. Pour the cake batter over the apples and smooth out the surface.
  6. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
  7. Let the cake cool down for ten minutes. First, run a knife along the edges of the cake and then place a plate on the pan and turn the cake over. Tap it gently, and the cake will fall into the plate.
  8. Now, depending on how you’d like the cake (read above) spoon the caramel sauce over it.

What’s your current favourite apple dessert? Perhaps you have an apple dessert to share with me, one that I absolutely must try?

{ 29 comments }

How To Cut An Artichoke

January 9, 2012

How to Cut an Artichoke, the Roman way.

Early in the morning at Campo de Fiori, aside from arranging the fresh produce, the vendors are busy trimming the seasonal favourite of Italian: the artichoke. While both small and large artichokes are available whole, the trimmed artichokes, ready to cook, are also on offer.

This is how they do it in Rome: trim the outer tough leaves and thorns, pull out the fibrous choke and then rub vigorously with half a lemon so that they don’t brown. In Venice, however, instead of rubbling the artichoke with lemon, they plunge the trimmed artichokes in cold water.

Here’s the video, unedited, capturing the dexterity of the vendor and the commotion at the morning market.

{ 7 comments }

Campo de’ Fiori, Rome

January 8, 2012

Campo de Fiori
View the slideshow

On an early Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn, had a cup of espresso and a ricotta and cherry pastry from the forno downstairs, and walked to the market I’d heard so much about, 20 metres away.

Campo de Fiori, literally meaning Field of Flowers (which it was, centuries ago), is a bustling square that houses one of the most glorious fresh food markets of Rome. It is positioned right in between River Tiber and Largo Argentina, the square where Caesar was assassinated.

During the day, Campo de Fiori hosts an open-air food market from Monday through Saturday, starting early in the morning and wrapping up by early afternoon. Here you can find seasonal fruits and vegetables, and up until a few years ago there were butchers and fishmongers too. The spice stalls here will leave you spoilt for choice: it  literally looked like there was a concoction created for every Italian dish!  At night, the square transforms into quite the nightspot, when the restaurants lining the square open up.

 When I reached Campo de Fiori food market, the morning buzz was setting in with the vendors arranging their fresh produce and wares. The Italians were their cheery self greeting “Buongiorno!” when they noticed a tourisity me snapping away.  One boisterous vendor even put forth an offer, typical of Italians: “One photo, One kiss!” Another was kind enough to let me record a video of just how they trim artichokes in Rome, a task that I find a wee bit daunting.

There was so much colour at the market: orange from the squashes, purple from the artichokes and treviso, red from the tomatoes and peppers, shades of green from the insalata mista, The lush produce at the market almost made me forget it was winter. And for an artichoke lover, there is no better time to visit.

If you do go there, don’t forget to bite into the Pizza Bianco at the Forno Campo de Fiori for me. I still dream of it at night.

{ 13 comments }

Happy 2012!

January 6, 2012

Happy New Year, dear readers!

Thank you for sticking around here for yet another year. Thanks for emailing, commenting and even lurking (Hello Lurkers! Say hi!?). Wish you a delicious year ahead filled with joy, inspiration and magic.

I’m late in wishing you, but I’ve good reason. I’ve been traveling quite a bit over the holidays and I finally got home late last night. On our 14 day trip, my husband and I ate our way through Italy, travelling up from Rome to Milan. We did our own little gelato trail in Rome and Florence. Ate the famous panforte in Siena. Bought gorgeous handmade porcelain in Venice. And cooked in the most beautiful house in Verona. Whenever I knew of a bustling market in the city, I’d wake up early to go photograph the gorgeous produce. I learned so many things on this trip: Popping into the back of bakeries, and making friends with pizzaiolo at the forno I’d go to almost everyday in Rome. Getting a vendor at Campo di Fiori to show me just the right way to cut an artichoke.Tasting olive oils from the seasons’s harvest in Florence, and much more. I even surprised myself by developing a penchant for coffee.

For Christmas eve, we were at the Pantheon for the midnight mass and for New Year’s eve we were at Piazza San Marco, where possibly the entire city of Venice had converged. There, we caught some live performances and fireworks over the waters.

Keeping the New Year food goal list from the past two years alive, I’ve updated all the things I managed to do from the goals last year. This year’s list isn’t too long, because I’ve 6 months of training at Le Cordon Bleu to look forward to with something new to learn every single day.

  1. Cook and bake a lot in my newly acquired cast iron skillet.
  2. Make my version of Mont Blanc.
  3. Make an artichoke and pine nut tart.
  4. Make the Abruzzo-style pizza base from the recipe I got from a lady in Venice.
  5. Harvest olives in Italy in the fall, and then see them through the crushing process to get a
  6. Bake a pumpkin and ricotta flan.
  7. Make chausson aux pommes.
  8. Perfect 3 salad recipes and make them often.
  9. Do something new with garlic.

What are your top food goals?

{ 23 comments }

Postcard from Rome: Artichokes at Campo di Fiori

December 24, 2011

I’m lucky to be living 20 metres from one of the most colourful food markets in Rome, Campo di Fiori. Today, I woke up early (or perhaps it was all the caffeine I’m enjoying lately) to photograph the gorgeous produce. I ended up photographing artichokes the most. Mostly because that’s what I’m obsessed with on this trip. I’m on a mission to try out artichokes in different forms and artichoke for every meal. Artichokes on a pizza. Deep fried artichoke. Artichoke fritters. Roman style boiled artichoke.

If you have any recommendations for artichoke eating in Rome or actually, any sort of eating, I’m all ears.

{ 16 comments }

← Previous Entries