apple and custard teacake

apple and custard teacake

• 6 May 2019

Sometimes its good to revisit old favourites. I've been making this cake for a very long time and decided to make it for friends last weekend. The cake is a nice old fashioned butter cake topped with cinnamon spiced apples and has a surprise inside, a layer of thick vanilla custard.



Even though its an age since I last made it, I remembered the cake batter being quite thick which made it a stretch to cover a 9 inch cake. Instead I decided to make the cake in an 8 inch tin and added 1/2 cup of buttermilk to the cake mixture. 



When I looked online the recipe I found was a little different from the recipe in my old cookbook, and that recipe also added 1/2 cup buttermilk. Great minds think alike.



Here's the recipe for you which makes an 8 inch cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, 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 20°C. 



Apple and custard teacake 
Custard
2 tbs custard powder
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 cup (250ml) milk
20 g butter
2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cake
200 g unsalted butter, plus 20g extra, melted
110g (½ cup) caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1¼ cup (185g) self-raising flour
¼ cup custard powder
Pinch salt
½ cup (125ml) buttermilk
2 (400g) apples, peeled, thinly sliced
1 tsp caster sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Method
To make the custard, combine custard powder and sugar in a small saucepan; gradually stir in the milk. Stir over heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat; stir in the butter and essence. Press plastic wrap over surface; cool.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a deep 20cm round cake pan; line with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined between each addition. Stir in the sifted flour, custard powder and salt and buttermilk, in two batches.

Whisk the cooled custard until smooth. Spread half of the cake mixture into the prepared pan; top with custard.  Dollop small spoonfuls of the mixture over the top of the custard then gently spread the remaining cake mixture over custard until completely covered. Overlap apple slices on top; brush with the extra melted butter, then sprinkle with combined caster sugar and cinnamon.

Bake for about 1 hour or until firm; stand 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. This recipe can be made up to a day ahead.



The cake went down a treat with people coming back for seconds.

I'm about to drop my keys to the housesitter as  tomorrow I'm flying to Europe. First stop Geneva to attend a conference followed by a holiday in Greece and a few days in Helsinki on my way home. Pictures to follow. 

Bye for now,

Jillian