Apple and Olive Oil Cake

 280g plain flour

½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
75ml virgin olive oil
25ml hazelnut oil
150g vanilla caster sugar
4 eggs
4 dessert apples, peeled and cut in 1cm dice
Zest from 1 lemon
30ml milk
2 eggs (whites only)

• Preheat the oven to 160°C, grease 2 x 25cm cake tins and lightly dust with flour
• Weigh the sugar, vanilla seeds and oil into a large mixing bowl; use an electric mixer to whisk the sugar and oil till light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, whisk until creamy and pale in colour.
• Sift all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold half of the dry ingredients gently into the egg mixture with a metal spoon.
• Add the milk and fold the rest of the flour in. Do not over work the batter.
• Fold in the diced apples and lemon zest.
• Whip the egg whites to soft peaks and fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
• Divide the cake mixture between the two cake moulds. This will give you two fairly shallow cakes, if you like a higher cake only use one cake tin.
• Place the cake tins in the preheated oven on the middle shelf and bake for 1 ½ hours.
• Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and let the cakes cool in the moulds for 10 minutes, turn them out on to a cooling rack and let the cakes cool completely.
• Dust with icing sugar

This cake is interesting and tastes rather like a steamed sponge pudding and is best served warm with custard or cream. It’s nothing like the one at Breda Murphy’s the other week. I probably wouldn’t make it again with this recipe.