We’ve got a bag of apples that need using up, and this French apple cake from Cook’s Illustrated’s appears to be a simple way to do it.

Slice apples, microwave, douse in Calvados & lemon juice. Mix dry, mix wet, and mise en place.

Mix up wet and dry, take a cup and make thicker with flour, add apples to other part.

Apple layer in first, then the thickened layer.

Bake at 140C fan for 1 1/4 hours until golden brown on top, and not too wobbly. Ended up being 1h25 for me.

Three hours of cooling later (!) it’s ready for dusting with icing sugar.

And finally it’s time to eat cake!

It’s really good. It reminds us both of a cake we’ve had before, but can’t quite place it. I think we’ll have to have another slice to help jog our memories!

Update: the morning after

This is even better as breakfast, with a cup of strong coffee. Proper French cake I guess!

We also worked out what it reminded it us of: frangipane. Which led us to an idea for a variant: instead of adding 2 Tbsp flour to the top layer, add ground almonds, and top with flaked almonds.