Leftovers from Tokyo
09 June 2009
I’ve kept you waiting for two weeks without any notice – sorry. I’ve simply been busy with all the moving stuff, and although our main luggage is still somewhere on its way from Tokyo, there’s been plenty to do getting re-settled in our apartment in Munich. It feels good to be back in our old place, furnished in our own style, and equipped with a nice spacious kitchen… I haven’t really had the chance for any big-time cooking yet, nor for a shopping trip to my regular vegetable and meat dealers at Viktualienmarkt. I certainly look forward to that! But with several weekend trips to re-visit family and friends across Europe this may still have to wait a bit.
So for the time being I can just offer you recipes remaining from our last days in Tokyo.
Although basically created from a number of more or less random leftover ingredients I wanted to use up, this cake is absolutely worth trying! I made it for our "farewell brunch" we organised for our dear friends just the weekend before we left, and it was definitely a success, judging from our guests’ apetite...
I love these cakes that never really get dry – containing apples, plenty of eggs, ground almonds, sugar, but hardly any flour there’s always a good chance it will come our really juicy. The special features about this particular one were of course the ground sesame, both black and white, as well as the pine seeds, all of which I had plenty left in my kitchen drawer. This certainly turned out to be a good use for them!
Sesame Apple Cake
| for a 26cm cake tin |
| 4 rather big, juicy apples |
| 6 eggs |
| 200g ground almonds |
| 50g toasted ground white sesame |
| 50g toasted ground black sesame |
| 50g cake flour |
| 140g sugar |
| a hand full of pine seeds |
| juice of 2 lemons |
| 2 packs vanilla sugar |
| 1/2 teaspoon baking powder |
| some cinnamon |
| 2 teaspoons of grated dried orange zest (alternatively lemon zest) |
| a dash of cointreau |
| a pinch of salt |
| some butter and extra flour to prepare the cake tin |
| a few almond plates and some icing sugar to garnish |
Pre-heat the oven at 180°C. Grease the cake tin and cover with flour.
Peel and coarsely grate the apples. Immediately pour over the juice of the 2 lemons, and add dash of cointreau if you wish.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites and whisk the yolks together with the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the orange zest until foamy (you will get the best result if you hold the bowl over some steaming water while you whisk). If lots of juice has come out of the apples, drain them slightly, then stir them into the egg batter.
In a different bowl, thoroughly combine the ground almonds, the black and white ground sesame, the flour, the baking powder, the cinnamon, the pine seeds and the pinch of salt. Add the mixture to the batter and stir until smooth.
Finally whisk the egg whites until stiff and carefully fold them into the batter. Fill into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 50-55 minutes. Check by briefly inserting a toothpick – when it comes out clean, the cake should be done. Let it cool down before removing it from the cake tin, and garnish with some toasted almond plates and icing sugar if you wish.