- You can substitute caster sugar for brown sugar if that’s what you have on hand. It will add a deeper caramel-like flavour.
- Granny Smiths work best, but any firm, tangy apple will do. Avoid softer apples, as they can become too mushy.
- Peeling is optional! Leaving the skin on adds extra texture and nutrients.
- Use a good quality vanilla-bean paste for the best flavour — essence won't give the same depth.
- Freeze apple cores to juice later for a fresh, natural sweetener.
- If it's a warm day, pop your butter back in the freezer between grates to keep it firm and easy to work with.
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- 1 cup (200g) coarse semolina
- 1 cup (230g) caster sugar
- 1 cup (130g) self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 medium granny smith apples
- 1 teaspoon vanilla-bean paste/extract
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 125g stick of salted butter, frozen for a minimum 30 minutes (plus extra, for greasing)
- 1 cup (100g) shelled walnuts, roughly crushed between your palms
- cream, to serve
- Preheat oven to 180°C (conventional)
- Combine semolina, sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in a bowl, and toss about or stir to evenly distribute.
- Peel, quarter, core and coarsely grate apples into a separate bowl, stirring through vanilla-bean paste/extract and lemon juice to keep the apple from browning, and adding to the juiciness.
- Line the base of a 20cm spring-form cake tin by greasing the sides with plenty of butter, and popping a cut-out round of baking paper on the bottom.
- It's time to start layering the cake. Take the butter out of the freezer and, grabbing a small piece of baking paper as a handle, coarsely grate a third of it across the base of the cake tin.
- Scoop out a cup of dry ingredients and sprinkle these across the butter (yes, it will very likely look like the weirdest thing you've ever put in your cake tin). Spread half the apple mixture on top of the dry-ingredients layer, and sprinkle another cup's worth of dry ingredients. Grate another third of the butter on top (if it feels like it's starting to melt, pop the butter back into the freezer for 15 minutes or so).
- Spread the other half of the apple mixture on top of this. Arrange the crushed walnuts across this layer. Sprinkle the rest of the dry ingredients on top. Finish with the last grating of butter.
- If all this ‘layering’ talk has you confused, the order into the tin is: butter, dry, apples, dry, butter, apples, walnuts, dry, butter.
- Pop onto a baking tray and bake at 180°C for 30—35 minutes, until the top is slightly burnished, just before the nuts begin to burn.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin, then spring open and serve with a big dollop of cream. Prepare for it to be crumbly, yet light, and for your guests to be amazed.