Moist Apple Pecan Cake
servings
For the cake
- 270 g sifted flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 200 ml Luxembourg apple juice “Viz” or cloudy apple juice
- 250 g soft butter
- 90 g white sugar
- 90 g light brown sugar
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 apple
- 100 g pecans
For the topping and icing
- 1 small apple
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 100 g light brown sugar cassonade
- 60 g butter
- 30 ml milk
- 115 g icing sugar
- 50 g pecans
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 170°C fan. Mix the flour with baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with both sugars, maple syrup and vanilla sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time.
- Alternately fold in flour and apple juice, starting and ending with the flour. Avoid overmixing to keep the cake moist.
- Wash and grate the apple. Chop the pecans and gently fold both into the batter.
- Grease and flour a loaf tin and pour in the batter. Bake for 1 hour. Test with a skewer. Remove and let cool on a wire rack lined with baking paper.
Topping and icing
- Wash the apple and cut into 8 wedges. Remove core and stem if desired. Melt 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp sugar in a pan and caramelise the apple wedges.
- For the icing, melt 100 g brown sugar and 60 g butter in a pan.
- Whisk in the milk and bring briefly to a boil.
- On very low heat, sift in the icing sugar and stir constantly until smooth.
- Pour the icing immediately over the cake and work quickly before it sets. Decorate straight away with the caramelised apple wedges and pecans.
