I’m so excited to kick off my collaboration with Fresh Up Your Life, a project funded by the European Union and by CSO Italy, which brings together the main Italian producers of fresh fruit and vegetables. I’ll be publishing a series of video recipes on my Instagram channel over the next couple months, starring Italian-grown fruits and vegetables. My first recipe is this fragrant apple rosemary cake, which I prepared with Tia Taylor: check out the video here!
Rosemary-Apple Cake
For the apples
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 apples (granny smith are nice)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp minced rosemary
- juice from 1/2 of a lemon
For the batter
- 3/4 cup (180 g) butter
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (120 g) sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups (300 g) flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
For one 9-inch round cake
Preheat oven to 325°F/170°C; grease and flour a 9-in (23 cm) cake pan (or cast-iron skillet). Peel and core the apples. Cut one of the apples into 12 wedges and dice the other apple into small chunks. In a heavy frying pan, melt 2 tbsp of butter and add the apple wedges, sprinkle with one teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon minced rosemary. Cook for 3 minutes per side, until slightly browned; transfer to a plate and set aside. Add diced apple to the hot pan with the lemon juice and a splash of water. Cook for 5 minutes until apples are tender, and then transfer them to a blender and allow to cool. Add the butter, sugar and eggs to the blender with the diced apples and blend until smooth. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt and rosemary. Add apple-butter mixture and stir until blended, but do not overmix. Scrape batter into prepared pan and press the apple wedges lightly into the top of the batter in a decorative pattern. Bake at 325°F/170C for 30 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
