How many of you ever suffered a sudden Sunday craving for home-made apple cake, went to the fridge to fetch the ingredients and looked in dismay at the sorrowful sight of 1 lonely egg left on the shelf?
How can you possibly make a lovely, fluffy rich cake with just one egg? My all-time favorite recipe for apple cake calls for three!
That’s when my friend Barbara over at Sunday at The Giacometti’s came to the rescue. Her simple and yet moorish marble cake recipe requires 1 egg only because the lack of protein is heavily compensated by the generous presence of butter and the luscious mascarpone cheese, an Italian must-have in the fridge.
I twicked her family recipe slightly, adapted it to suit my need to use up a couple of lackluster apples, and, Ecco Fatto!
A moist, rich, fluffy, apple cake that required no extra trip to the shops.
That’s a Sunday treat!
Ingredients
1 egg
180 gr -3/4 cup of sugar
80 gr -1/3 cup of soft butter
2 tablespoons of soft mascarpone (substitute with thickened cream if mascarpone is not available)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or paste
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
small pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of Calvados or any liquor you fancy (omit if you don’t like liquor)
230 gr – 2 cups of self-raisin flour, sifted
2 apples, thinly sliced, skin on
almond flakes to sprinkle on top
How to
Preheat the oven to 180 C, 350F.
Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Beat the egg with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add butter and mascarpone and whisk until well incorporated. Add vanilla, liquor, salt and spices.
Sift the flour and pour into the bowl. Mix it with a wooden spoon or a spatula until well amalgamated. Try to avoid over beating the flour, you don’t want to stimulate the gluten too much, otherwise the cake will turn out bit too dense.
Add the apple slices and mix them through the batter.
Pour the batter into the tin, sprinkle with the almond flakes and bake for 35/40 minutes, or until nicely bronzed on top and a skewer come out clean if inserted into the middle of the cake. Cool in the tin, at room temperature for at least 1 hour before slicing.
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Silvia Colloca 
Yum! I can’t wait to make this!
Thanks, Silvia.
Silvia this looks like another delicious recipe. And I definately can relate to getting ready to make something, only to realize your missing one ingredient. A moist apple cake with only one egg?? Sounds like a keeper to me!
It sure is! I must try with chocolate too, I can only imagine how good it would be!
Chocolate makes everything better!!
That’s a mantra!
farò presto! assolutamente!
La facciamo insieme tra un mesetto!
can’t wait!
buonissima!
Grazie bella!
always a pleasure
I love when you have to wing it, Silvia! Things turn out and this looks and sounds awesome!! xo Ally
Thanks Ally! That’s the real magic of cooking, isn’t it?
I think this is very good
Thanks Alberto!
mmm I love Mascarpone! this cake is… wonderfull!
greetings from Italy!
Grazie Simona! Felice 2013.
Had great trouble making this cake moist enough to fold in the eggs. Ended up adding milk and then literally forcing one sliced apple into the mixture. Put it in the oven believing it would be a failure, BUT No! Absolutely delicious. I don’t think anyone could fail with this recipe. Loved it.
Thanks for your comment, I’m so glad the cake turned out well in the end. As you see from the pictures, the batter is supposed to be quite thick, but still a batter, it should not have pastry consistency. Did you cream the egg, butter and sugar until pale and fluffy? Sometimes flour can react to moisture in very different ways, according to how it’s milled and to humidity. I’m glad you had the great idea to add milk to your batter. I always find myself adjusting recipes to suit the ingredients I’m cooking with. All the best,
Silvia
Hi Silvia, I’m just eating a warm slice of the apple cake (it was very hard to wait the 1 hour) with a cup of tea. It is deliciously moist. The supermarket in my small country town doesn’t stock mascarpone (it is a special order item) so thank you for suggesting the substitute, the thickened cream worked perfectly. … I might enter it in the next CWA bake off!
Caitlin, I am so please to hear this! Please let me know how the bake-off goes!
Silvia
This looks divine! I never did the panettone (still on my to do list), but going to make this tomorrow Easter Sunday, definately inspired me to cook again, my mojo had disappeared for a while!
Andrea, hold your horses, I have a recipe for Easter Colomba! https://silviascucina.net/2012/03/27/italian-easter-bread-with-prosecco-and-chocolate-chips/