Light and zesty, this Italian apple cake is perfect for breakfast or an afternoon pick-me-up. It’s a family recipe from my boyfriend’s nonna Amalia who was a fantastic cook. We recently discovered a treasure trove of her recipes and this is just one of many delicious discoveries.
Italian Apple Cake- the original recipe
Andrea’s nonna Amalia typed up over 52 pages of her recipes on a little typewriter from her home in Turin, Piedmont. The original recipe was measured out in tablespoons so I’ve converted it to mls and grams but besides that I think it’s pretty perfect as it is. Amalia wasn’t actually much of a sweet tooth and dessert wasn’t her favourite thing to make, so this cake will suit those who like zesty flavours and fruit-based desserts. I’ve heard so much about this incredible woman and leafing through all her recipes I have started to feel as if I too have now met her. She was actually born in Imperia in Liguria, a region famous for their olive oil that’s also used in this cake instead of butter.
Ingredients
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- 200g self-raising flour
- 2 tbsps milk
- Pinch of cinnamon and salt
- 50ml marsala
- 4 green apples, peeled and sliced
- Zest of 1 lemon
Italian Apple Cake Recipe
- Preheat an oven to 180C fan-forced and grease a round cake tin.
- Start by beating the eggs with the caster sugar until light and fluffy. You can use an electric whisk or a manual one.
- Slowly pour the olive oil into your egg mix and continue whisking. It should thicken up nicely.
- Next, add the vanilla from one vanilla bean, the zest of a lemon, a pinch of cinnamon and salt into the batter. Stir well.
- Afterwards, add your flour into the batter along with the milk and marsala. Stir the mixture well.
- Finally, add the apples to your cake mixture and pour into your pre-prepared cake tin.
- Cook the Italian apple cake for 35 minutes or when a metal stick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Dust your cake with some icing sugar to serve.
This cake is super easy to throw together at a moments notice and I hope you enjoy making it. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! If you’d like to discover more of my recipes, you can check out the full collection here. My plan is to release a new recipe from Nonna Amalia’s collection every week along with some insights into the background of the dish. Next up? Maybe we’ll cook her winter vegetable sugo, linguine alle conchiglie or even her famous pesto.
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