Apple and Olive Oil Cake with Maple Frosting

This is a special birthday cake for a special friend :) It seems like P has had the longest birthday ever! (well on my blog anyway)  I made some homemade chocolate liqueur truffles and lemon meringue kisses as gifts and asked her what she wanted for a birthday cake. She loves apples (without nuts) and requested an apple crumble. However, Ottolenghi's apple and olive oil cake has been on my to bake list for a long time and I thought this is the perfect opportunity to make it.  Plus I wanted a proper cake that I could frost and decorate for her birthday rather than an apple crumble!  

If you haven't been to Ottolenghi, I would highly recommend it. The food is delicious and all their cakes and desserts are absolutely divine. My absolute favourite is the macadamia and caramel cheesecake. Absolute heaven  :) 

This cake was absolutely delicious. It was really moist and light and I love the crunch of apples. The maple syrup frosting was heavenly and I have to admit I ate all the left over frosting for breakfast and dessert the next day! 

We went to a lovely restaurant to celebrate the birthday and they were kind enough to decorate the plate with writing and fruit as shown above. I bought a really fancy candle after having seen it on the caked crusader's blog. It's really amazing (and it saved me decorating the top of the cake- it's a huge candle!)

 I cut my apples fairly large as I like to see them in the cake. 

 add apples to the batter 

 add egg whites

 ready to go in the oven 

 my new turntable from mum (thanks mum!)- it says 'have a nice day' although you can't really see it from this photo

 first layer of cake 

 spread frosting on top 

 sandwich the cakes 

 more frosting on top 

 amazing candle - musical candle with a sparkler on top and candles on the petals that rotate slowly. I bought it from amazon. 

 this might explain the candle better! 

 wow

 absolutely divine :) 

Happy Birthday P! 

For the cake

280g flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

120ml olive oil

160g caster sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3 bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1cm pieces

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 egg whites

For the icing

100g unsalted butter

100g light muscovado sugar

85ml maple syrup

220g cream cheese

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Grease and line 2 sandwich tins
• Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
• Whisk the olive oil, vanilla and sugar in an electric mixer until smooth. 
• Whisk in the eggs, on at a time and mix until well incorporated. 
• Stir in the apples and lemon zest and then the flour mixture.
• Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. 
• Fold egg whites gently into the batter. 
• Pour the mixture into the prepared sandwich tins. 
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 
• Allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack. 
• To make the frosting, beat togethr the butter, maple syrup and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add in the cream cheese and continue beating until it's very smooth and light. 
• Spread half the icing on top of the first cake and place the second cake on top. 
• Spread the remainder of the frosting on top. 
• Eat left over frosting - this is the best part :)