Chilean Drunken Apple Cake

It is a very sad day when you cannot find a recipe for something amazing that you made years ago. There are thousands if not millions of cookbooks and I was almost certain that this recipe for this divine apple cake was long lost, never to be found in a sea of cookbooks.

The internet never fails to surprise me, and I eventually came across it after several hours of searching! I'm relieved to say that the cake was just as good as I remember, if not better. It's unusual in the way that it is made by continuously layering sponge batter with creamy apples, but it seems to work. 

The only irritating part of making this is the cooking time, which is about an hour and a half, hence why I decided to make it on a leisurely Sunday afternoon. But if you're willing to put up with that, you're left with a beautiful cake crammed full of sweet apples that is utterly delicious!

Chilean Drunken Apple Cake 

Recipe adapted from 'Warm Bread and Honey Cake' by Gaitri Pagrash-Chandra 

For the filling: 
1 1/2 pounds tart apples (about five medium sized apples)
Generous 1/3 cup (2 3/4 oz) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120ml) double cream/heavy cream

For the cake: 
2 cups (10 1/2 oz) all purpose/plain flour, plus more for the pan
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 1/2 oz/11 tbsp butter, at room temperature
Generous 1 cup/8oz granulated sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
5 tbsp rum (any rum will do quite nicely) or Calvados
5 tbsp cold water

Method: 

1. Make the apple filling: Peel and core the apples. Cut each apples into 8 wedges and then cut each wedge lengthwise into slender slices.

2. In a bowl, combine the sugar and the cream. Add the apples and set aside until needed. Sift the flour with the baking powder into a bowl and set aside. 

3. Preheat the oven to 325F/ 160C fan/Gas Mark 3. Butter the pan and dust with flour. I used a 20cm round springform cake tin. 

4. Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture in four batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition. Gently fold in the flour mixture in four batches, adding the water and rum with the third batch. Stop mixing as soon as the last batch of flour is incorporated. 

5. Divide the batter into 3 portions. Scrape 1/3 of the batter into the tin and smooth the surface. Spoon half of the apple and cream mixture evenly over the batter, leaving a 1/2 inch plain border around the edge and smoothing the slices so they're neat and level. Scrape another 13 of the batter on top of the apples and cream and smooth the surface, spreading the batter all the way to the edge of the pan. Spoon the remaining apples and cream evenly on top of the batter, and then top with the third and final batch of batter, smoothing all the way to the edge of the pan (it is a very full cake tin at this point!).

6. Bake this for 1 1/2 hours, if it starts getting a little too toasty brown, then I'd recommend wrapping your cake with a layer of tin foil. A skewer inserted into the cake should be only a little bit gooey from the cooked apples. Let the cake cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes, then release the sides of the pan and transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with granulated sugar for crunch. It will keep at room temperature for up to four days.