We always have an abundance of apples around this time of year as we have apple trees growing in our garden. This is therefore the perfect recipe to put some of our hoards of apples to good use.
It’s a family favourite from a Jewish recipe book we’ve had for as long as I can remember. When I first came across it as a child I used to pronounce it as ‘polish’ apple cake like shoe polish! So ever since then, that’s how we’ve pronounced it. So here you go, (shoe) polish apple cake:
(I also recommend serving it with cream and fresh fruit such as strawberries if you’re having it as a dessert, but it’s of course also delicious on its own if you fancy it more as a cheeky mid-morning snack!)
Polish Apple Cake
Ingredients
375g self-raising flour
3-4 large cooking apples (or a mixture of cooking & eating)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
350g caster sugar
4 eggs
250ml vegetable oil
120ml orange juice
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 30 x 38cm/ 12 x 15in square cake tin and line with greaseproof paper. Thinly slice up the apples, but don’t peel.
Put the sliced apples in a bowl and mix with the cinnamon and 5 tbsp of the sugar. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, remaining sugar, vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla essence until well combined. Sift in the remaining flour and salt, then stir into the mixture.
Pour two-thirds of the cake mixture into the tin and top with one-third of the apples. Then pour over the remaining cake mixture and top with the remaining apple (decorate into a pattern if you like).
Bake for about 1 hour, or until golden brown. Cut into squares.