Line two 8” sandwich tins with baking
parchment and set to one side.
Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour,
baking powder and vanilla essence
together in your mixing bowl and beat
until nicely creamed and blended, for
a couple of minutes. Add the grated
apple and mix well then divide between
your two lined tins. Top one of the
batter mixes in the tin with the small
diced apple and sugar nibs (if you can’t
get white sugar nibs, a sprinkling of
Demerara sugar works just as well, to
give it that crunchy top – this will be the
top of your cake). Bake both cakes in
the oven for approximately 40 minutes,
checking after 30 minutes. They should
be nice and golden brown when you
remove them from the oven, with an
inserted skewer coming out cleanly and
the sides just shrinking away from the
tin. Leave in their tins on a cooling rack
until completely cool.
Whilst your sponges are cooling make
your filling. Tip the mascarpone into a
bowl and add the caster sugar, vanilla
bean paste and 2/3rd of the roasted
rhubarb. Mix well with a spoon until you
have a lovely pink filling.
Place the bottom sponge on to your
serving plate, brush lightly with a small
amount of rhubarb syrup. Spread
your mascarpone filling over the entire
sponge then dot the remaining pieces
of roasted rhubarb over the filling, then
push them down in to the filling. Place
the cake top on to the filling so that the
diced apple and sugar topping is on the
top of the cake. Dust with icing sugar.
This is a deliciously moist and dense
cake that needs nothing else served with
it apart from a steaming hot cup of tea
or coffee. It also makes a great dessert
with it’s puddingy and moist nature from
the grated apple sponges. This cake will
keep refrigerated for several days (if it’s
not all eaten straight away that is).
By Liz Chatfield
sylviaskitchen.co.uk
45