Feijoa season has landed in EnZed… Ye-haaa! I had a hankering for feijoas. And Cake. Introducing spiced apple and feijoa cake.
Last weekend I found myself in possession of 30 odd free range eggs last week and spent the weekend in the kitchen. First I whipped up this carrot cake, always a crowd pleaser. Second I had a hankering for feijoas. Off I went to the green grocers to buy some, ouch NZ$8 for a bag of 10! I need to make friends with someone who has a feijoa tree. Any takers?
Anyway, I had a play in the kitchen, tweaked an ancient apple cake recipe I had, added ground almonds, feijoas, ginger, spice and bugger me days, this spiced apple and feijoa cake turned out perfectly the first time. I’ve made it again since to test it – boom, perfection! I shared a sneaky photo on my Facebook page and there were lots of requests for the recipe to be shared. So, here you go!
Ingredients
- 125g butter
- 1 green apple, peeled, cored and grated
- 5 feijoas (medium sized, flesh scooped out and roughly chopped)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups flour (not self-raising)
- 1 cup ground almonds (aka almond meal)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1.5 teaspoons mixed spice (cinnamon will be fine)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger
- Icing sugar (for dusting - optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (normal bake). Grease the sides of a cake tin (I used one that was 22cm wide) and line the base with baking paper.
- Melt the butter and let it cool slightly.
- Place the grated apple and feijoa flesh into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle over the brown sugar and cooled butter and stir everything lightly with a fork.
- Add both eggs and ginger and mix well.
- Sift in flour, baking soda and mixed spice. Add ground almonds. Stir until everything is well combined.
- Place batter into prepared cake tin and bake on the middle over rack for 35-40 minutes until it is risen and golden and the top bounces back when pressed. Also do the skewer check (make sure it comes out clean from the centre).
- Leave to cool in the tin.
- When cooled, dust with icing sugar (optional).
- This keeps well for 3-4 days and is delicious heated and served with custard (though we like it best warm with Greek Yogurt drizzled with high quality honey).
