Dorset Apple Cake

Recently I discovered tastespotting.com...and boy oh boy, it has opened doors to a gazilion and one recipes accompanied with mouth-watering photos. I am secretly addicted to the website. I visit it 2-3 times a day just to see what new recipes have been added. And through that, I am attempting a apple cake adapted from technicolorkitchen.blogspot.com. I changed the recipe a lil by having less butter - this made the cake more apple-ish but less tall.

The cake is yummily sweet with apples but has a hint of lemon from adding lemon zest into the batter. It is also very very moist and smells rather different from a usual apple cake. I can't quite decide what is it yet, could be the lemon zest or the ground almond. Whatever it is, this cake is sooooo good. Have it as an afternoon snack or a breakfast dessert!

Let's start baking! Here's what you'll need:

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter

- 1 cup white granulated sugar

- lemon zest of 1 lemon

- 3 large eggs

- 1 cup flour

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 2 tablespoons ground almond (I made this from pulsing sliced almonds in a food processor)

- 2 cups chopped apples

- 1 tablespoon brown sugar

- powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 355 degrees F. Butter a 9 inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Cream together the butter, white granulated sugar and lemon zest.

3. Add in the eggs, one at a time. And add in a pinch of flour with each egg. Mix well.

4. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix.

5. With a spatula, fold in the ground almond.

6. Fold in the chopped apples.

7. Spoon the batter into the pan.

8. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top.

9. Bake for 1 hour until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

10. Dust the top with powdered sugar before serving.

I'm giving away the rest of the cake, so I had an extra large slice this afternoon. Oh, and I am nursing a slightly twisted foot so I deserve the extra large slice!