Chocolate Apple Cake

Bake this if you wish an apple cake in an hour!

This apple chocolate cake was hubby's way of participating in his photo forum recipe challenge, by proxy. I took the liberty to make modifications with the original recipe so that it would be light and airy.  Do not be intimidated by the long list . I managed to prepare the cake in 30 minutes flat,  baking excluded.

If I can tweak it some more, it would be to reduce the powdered sugar by 10g or so.

My favourite part of the cake ? The crunchy bits of apple which provides contrast to the soft, pillowy cake. Definitely a keeper!

Here goes :

Adapted from fav.me/d5dreer

A:

175 g butter, softened

130g  powdered sugar ( 120g recommended )

3 eggs yolks , room temperature

B:

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder

30 g cocoa powder

175g plain flour

7g baking powder

C:

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 Tbsp caster sugar

D:

2 apples,  cored and chopped

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Square aluminum tray, 8x8inch, greased and floured

Method :

Preheat oven to 180C

Whisk ( A ) butter, powdered sugar until pale and creamy.

Whisk in yolks, one at a time.

Sift all the dry ingredients in list  B (  cinnamon powder, cocoa powder, plain flour, baking powder
 ) over the butter mixture. Whisk until butter and dry ingredients are combined.  This yields a very heavy  treacle like batter.

Clean the whisks before proceeding.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites, cream of tartar, and sugar until foamy and forms soft peaks.

Add 1/3 of egg white mixture into cocoa batter. Fold and mix to lighten the batter.

Add the rest of the egg white into the batter , in 2 batches. Fold and mix again until whites and batter are well combined.

Stir in apples and chocolate chips.

Transfer the resultant batter into  a greased and floured tray,  8 by 8 inches.

Bake in  a preheated oven at 180C for 40 minutes.

Cake is ready when the skewer comes out clean.

Cool on a rack before serving.