Autumn apple and hazelnut layer cake
Description
This cake is perfect for autumn, when there are cobnuts or hazelnuts to be picked. I have made this for many autumn weddings, adding a marzipan cover and decorating with marzipan roses (see page 000) and wild flowers. It looks really fresh and is easy to do.
Ingredients
For the cake
For the filling
For the topping
Instructions
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Bake the cake the day before you want to serve it, or else it is too difficult to cut.
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Take a 24 cm cake tin, line the base with baking parchment and butter it lightly.
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Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
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Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy; they should double or even triple in volume and turn pale. Sift the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture and gently fold it in.
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Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the hot oven for 25 minutes.
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Check with a skewer if it is baked all the way through; it should emerge clean from the centre of the cake. Remove from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool down, before removing from the tin.
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For the filling, peel and core the apples and grate them coarsely. Whip the cream until it billows and chop the nuts finely. Mix them all together.
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Cut the sponge cake in three horizontally with a serrated knife. Take a big serving dish and place on the base layer.
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Sprinkle with half the calvados. Spread one-half of the cream evenly over and place on the middle layer. Sprinkle with the remaining calvados. Spread over the rest of cream, then place on the top layer and dust with icing sugar and hazelnuts.
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Leave for 30 minutes before serving.