Apple cake known as "szarlotka"

In Spain as well as in Poland people buy the seasonal fruits. I love seasons of strawberries or cherries - you can see everywhere the richness of the red fruits smiling to you. When outside is grey and rainy we are left with oranges and apples. In fact I just learnt the other day that Poland is the biggest producer of apples in the world :) Some people think apples are boring, but there is something very well known in Poland that makes apples exciting - szarlotka! Together with Cinnamon and raisins, apples give this cake wonderful taste. In many coffee shops in Poland you can find this cake served warm and with a scoop of ice-cream. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 

  Ingredients:

• 3 glasses flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 glass sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250g butter (cold)

• 2 kg apples
• 12 teaspoon sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• 100g raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel the apples, cut into 4, remove the core and slice each piece. Fry them together with sugar and vanilla sugar, but only a bit, they have keep their shape. Add raisins and cinnamon.


Mix flower with baking powder and spill it onto pastry board, add 3/4 glass of sugar, vanilla sugar and butter. Chop everything. Add 3 yolks and 1 whole egg.  Quickly knead the dough (the butter shouldn´t melt with the heat of your hands). Divide the dough in 2 parts, wrap them in foil and put in the fridge for 1 hour.

One part of the dough pin out on the foil and together put in the cake pan. Put back in the fridge. Whip 3 egg whites, add the remaining 1/4 glass sugar still whipping till it´s stiff.

Reheat the oven to 175 C. Take the cake pan out of the fridge and cover the dough with apples and then with whipped egg whites. Sprinkle the top with the second part of the dough crushed into little pieces.

Bake 1 hour. Sprinkle castor sugar before serving.