Italian Apple Loaf Cake (Torta di Mele)
I made this apple loaf cake (Torta di Mele) recipe up when I was on holiday in 2019. We were staying in a small town 30 km from Firenze (Florence), called San Giovanni Valdarno. We were fortunate to have our holiday apartment close to a daily market. During our visit it was apple season, so every day when I visited the local markets, there was an abundance of cheap apples. As I love anything with cooked apples, cake or pudding, I decided to research Italian apple cakes. After baking a few versions in my one and only loaf tin, I came up with this recipe – apple loaf cake (torta di mele). This apple loaf cake is super moist and light with a hint of lemon. The recipe could be easily adapted for spelt or buckwheat flour and oat milk could be used instead of regular milk.
Ingredients
- 180g caster sugar
- 125g butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 125ml milk* (you may need extra if swapping the flour) – oat milk would work if preferred
- 250g self-raising flour (could swap for buckwheat or spelt flour + 2 tsp baking powder)*
- 2 large Golden Delicious apples (or other good cooking apples), peeled, cored and sliced 1cm thick
- zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C, 170˚C fan
- Line the loaf tin with baking paper.
- Beat the sugar and soft butter together until creamy.
- Add eggs and mix, then milk, vanilla and zest.
- Add flour and mix through.
- Fold in half the sliced apples.
- Pour into your prepared tin, add the remaining apples neatly across the top and sprinkle with white sugar.
- Bake for 50-6o minutes until golden and the skewer comes out clean after testing.