buckwheat apple cake

buckwheat apple cake

• 13 Apr 2020

During the Covid-19 crisis every-one has been baking and a few weeks ago Danielle Alavarez's recipe for a buckwheat apple cake made using browned butter was all over the internet. 



I had a bag of organic buckwheat flour in the cupboard and 3 apples I'd planned to use in another cake recipe and I always have almond meal in the house, so I was good to go. Danielle's recipe was too small to read clearly on my phone so I adapted one of my old apple cake recipes to make my own version. 



Browned butter makes everything taste better but it also smells gorgeous. The whole house was perfumed with the characteristic nutty aroma as the cake baked. 



I decorated the cake with apple slices which sank to the bottom as the cake baked. When I checked the recipe I'd inadvertently left out 1/4 of the dry ingredients which is probably the reason why. The sliced apple topping is optional so you can miss this step out if you like.

Here’s the recipe for you, inspired by Danielle's. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20ºC.

Browned butter buckwheat apple cake - makes a 17 cm cake. if you'd like to make a 23cm cake, just double all the ingredients or use Danielle's recipe.

Cake 
125 g unsalted butter 

1½ cups coarsely chopped, peeled cooking apples - 1 large or 2 small Granny smith apples 

1 tbs lemon juice  

¾ cup buckwheat flour  

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda   

1 teaspoon cinnamon  
scant 1/2 cup almond meal 

⅓ cup brown sugar 
⅓ cup caster sugar  
1 teaspoon vanilla  

1 egg  

¼ cup milk or buttermilk 

  

Topping  

1 small green apple peeled, cored and thinly sliced

2 teaspoons butter, melted 

2 tsp sugar mixed with ¼ tsp cinnamon

  

Method

Place the unsalted butter into a small bowl. Cover the bowl and place in the microwave. Microwave on high for 5-6 minutes or until the butter has turned a nutty brown colour. Set aside to cool. While the butter is cooling, combine the coarsely chopped apple and the lemon juice in a small bowl. Set to one side for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.  Grease and line a 17 cm spring form tin with baking paper. 

Sift the buckwheat flour, bicarb soda and cinnamon into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set to one side. In a medium size bowl combine the browned butter, the sugars and vanilla. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Add the flour mix in batches and sufficient milk to make a soft batter. Gently fold in the chopped apple. Spoon the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Top the cake with the sliced apples. Brush the apple slices with the melted butter then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

Place the cake tin on the middle shelf in the oven and bake for 50 - 60 minutes at 180°C/350°F or until the cake is cooked when tested. If the cake is browning too quickly you may have to cover the top with a piece of greaseproof paper. Place the tin a wire rack to cool. When the cake has completely cooled, remove it from the tin and discard the lining paper.  

  

To serve - dust the cake with icing sugar before serving with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream or vanilla gelato.

The cake is lovely and moist and tastes even better a day or two after baking. I'll definitely be making this again this time remembering to measure all the ingredients properly.

See you all again next week with some more baking from.my kitchen. 

Bye for now,

Jillian