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Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Tuesday, 16 October 2007

Well it has been a busy few days as yesterday I catered lunch for 70 people in our village - in addition to doing a full days work! I must be mad!
Anyway in need of a bit of energy this morning and armed with some windfalls from the orchard, I decided to bake a cake to have with a much needed cup of tea. A large slice of warm apple cake with a dollop of freshly whipped cream and I was finally feeling ready to face the day!


Apple and Cinnamon Yogurt Cake
Preparation time 25 minutes, baking 1 hour
3 dessert apples, peeled cored and thinly sliced
125grams muscavado sugar
juice of half a lemon
125grams caster sugar
200grams margarine
3 large eggs
200grams self raising flour
2 tsp cinnamon powder
200ml Greek honey yogurt

Line an 8inch spring form pan with greaseproof paper and grease well. As soon as you have sliced the apples place them in a bowl with one tbsp of the muscavado and the juice of half a lemon, tossing them to make sure they are all coated. Lay the apples in circles on the bottom of the tin, overlapping them so that you can't see any of the tin base. Cream the remaining muscavado, caster sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and then fold in the flour, cinnamon and yogurt. Pour the cake batter on top of the apples and bake Gas Mark 4/180C/Aga Roasting oven below a cold shelf for an hour until the cake feels firm and a knife comes out clean with no batter. If the cake is starting to brown too much towards the end, cover it lightly with silver foil.

6 comments:

Rita said...

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I have a special birthday tea tomorrow and wanted to do something different. Strangely I bought Greek Yogurt this after. This will be perfect. Sorry I am such a copy cat! Tried your pea and ginger soup too - it was yummy. I added a bit of Dutch touch to it by slicing frank fritter sausages to it. Thanks again!

Figs, Bay, Wine said...

What a stunning cake! I'll definitely be trying this - our apples are at their most delicious and fragrant right now. Thank you!

Vida said...

Hannah, I am bookmarking this one, this is definately a keeper!! Vida x

Marie Rayner said...

Mmm... Lovely looking cake and such a wonderful thing to do with the windfalls. I'm sending Todd out to get some later on so I can enjoy this too!

Celia Hart said...

That's a gorgeously yummy looking cake Hannah! Just the thing to make with fragrant apples fresh from the tree. (Probably nice to sneak a slice of quince in there too!)

Celia

Joanna said...

Lovely cake, Hannah. As I am always trying to remove saturates from our diet, here's a question: do you think this cake would suffer if I took out one or two of the egg yolks? And if I did, do you think I should replace them with anything? Apple sauce seems to be the preferred method, although I've never tried it. I'd really appreciate your thoughts because you are such an ace baker

Joanna