Brown sugar spiced apple cake

Ingredients

For the cake

• 200g almond flour
• 3 tbsp buckwheat flour
• 250ml plant milk
• 125ml maple syrup
• 125ml melted coconut oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1 vanilla pod (bean), split and the seeds scraped out, or 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
• A pinch of pink Himalayan salt

For the topping

• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 apples, unpeeled and cored, then quartered and sliced into thin half-moons

To serve

• Plant-based vanilla custard

Method

Heat the oven to 180C. Line a 20cm cake pan with baking parchment or use a good-quality silicone mould.

Add all the cake ingredients to a food processor and blitz for about 5 mins until everything is well incorporated. Pour the mixture into the cake pan.

For the topping, mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl, then sprinkle a layer of the mixture over the cake. Arrange the apples neatly to cover the top of the cake, then sprinkle the remaining sugar and cinnamon over the apples.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 mins. Switch the oven off and leave the cake to sit in the oven for a further 15 mins.

Remove the cake from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled pop the cake out of the pan onto a serving plate.

I love this cake served with a good helping of vanilla custard.

Image: Louise Hagger

Recipe from Celebrate: Plant-based Recipes for Every Occasion (Hardie Grant)