There are only so many days in a month and when you have over half a cookbook flagged with recipes to try, the struggle becomes real. Plus kids, activities, events to attend, life in general! But I’m determined and so I made my way through a good handful of recipes from Olia Hercule’s cookbook Mamushka.
The monthly cookbook club I belong to allows you to try any recipe you want and share it to Instagram. There are no other requirements besides check out what others in the club are making. I have found through this process this year there are several recipes I would make again. This being one of them.
This Apple Sponge contains no rising agent. You create height by beating air into the eggs. The cake was moist and using Fall apples harvested at their peak makes it the perfect Autumn dessert. I added salt to the recipe to enhance the flavour but that’s entirely your choice.
Olia’s mom would make this whenever they had a craving for something sweet, calling it biskvit (“a sponge”).
- Butter for greasing pan
- 5 eggs
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp superfine sugar
- 1⅓ cups flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 4 green apples, cored and thinly sliced
- icing sugar for dusting
- pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x12 inch cake pan with butter.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together in a bowl with a handheld mixer for at least 5 minutes (use a timer if necessary) until very thick, pale, and foamy. The amount of air you beat in is essential.
- Gently fold the flour and a good pinch of salt into the egg mixture.
- Mix the cinnamon with the apples, then tip the apples into the prepared cake pan and pour the cake batter evenly over the apples. Bake until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, 35 minutes.
- Let it cool in the pan. Dust with some icing sugar, cut into squares and serve.
