Vanilla and cinnamon sponge, filled with chopped walnuts and apple and finished with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting and a scatter of chopped walnuts. Every bite of this cake tastes like Autumn.
Ingredients (makes a 10inch cake)
For the cake:
190g unsalted butter, at room temperature
190g self-raising flour
190g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, at room temp
1 teaspoon baking powder
50g plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into 1cm pieces
1 tablespoon runny honey
100g walnuts, roughly chopped
For the frosting:
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g full-fat cream cheese*, at room temperature
*It is important to use full-fat cream cheese as the low fat options are too loose in texture and will result in a runny frosting.
Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease a 10inch round cake tin with a little butter.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Break in the eggs one at a time*, mixing well before adding the next egg.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Add ½ of the dry ingredients into the batter and mix until fully combined. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients.
Now add the yoghurt, vanilla essence and honey and mix until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Finally fold in 80g of the chopped walnuts and the chopped apple.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 55-60 minutes and until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to completely cool before removing from the tin and transferring to a cooling rack.
To make your frosting, first beat the butter for a good 5 minutes until smooth and free from any lumps.
Now drain of any excess liquid from the cream cheese and beat into the butter until just combined, be careful not to over beat. Sift in half the icing sugar and beat together. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat again until light, fluffy and pale in colour. If the frosting appears too runny then put the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm it up.
Spread a thin layer of frosting over the top and sides of the cake and put in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up – this is your crumb coat. Take the cake out of the fridge and spread the remaining frosting all over the cake and finish by dotting the remaining walnuts on top.