Deliciously autumnal, this cake is moist, aromatic and bursting with flavour.
Autumn is definitely in the air. The nights are drawing in earlier and here in Shetland it’s been dark, dreary and raining for days. On those nights where it hasn’t been overcast and howling with a gale we’ve been treated to the Northern Lights. Autumn here in Shetland, although wild and beautiful in its own right, is decidedly different to the Autumn I grew up with in Canada.
Where I grew up in Cape Breton, on the East Coast of Canada, the leaves on the trees turn from vibrant green to a wide range of glorious colours, attracting tourists from all over the world. The smell in the air changes and the wild apples which grow absolutely everywhere are ready for picking. Wild animals, especially the deer, enjoy the fallen fruit, while small children climb the trees looking for the biggest, reddest apples they can find. These photos of Cape Breton were taken on my last trip to my childhood home nearly a decade ago.
Alas, no apples grow here in Shetland, my little home on a rock in the middle of the North Sea, so we have to make due with the supermarket variety shipped in from Chile. Oh how I miss the flavour of a freshly picked apple! Supermarket apples may not be the most flavoursome apples for eating, but they do well in home baking, like this apple and cardamom cake. The delicious cake recipe which follows was scaled down and converted to UK measures from one found in the Canadian Living website. The original recipe doesn’t have a frosting, that is my own adaptation.
Regular readers will know I participate in quite a few food blogging challenges. One of my favourites, Alphabakes, is co-hosted by Caroline over at Caroline Makes and Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker. Alphabakes gives us a different letter each month and we’re tasked to share a recipe with a title or ingredient starting with that particular letter. This month, hosted by Caroline, the challenge is a bit more tricky as the letter is ‘Q’!
The first thing that sprung to mind was quince, but I’d never seen a quince here in Shetland so I thought, this month, I would not be able to participate.
However! During a recent trip to our wholefoods shop in town I was having a good old rummage through their reduced items basket when I pulled out a bottle of half price quince syrup! With glee I showed my family, explaining that this month’s Alphabakes challenge was about the letter Q. The eldest, without missing a beat, said, “Well, isn’t that a quince-idence!” Ha!
To be honest, I’ve never seen, let alone tried a quince, so I had no idea what flavour to expect. An Internet search informed me that a quince is sort of half way between a pear and an apple, and the idea of incorporating the syrup into a spiced apple cake of some sort was born.
Oh my! I am so glad I did!
What a gorgeous, deliciously moreish cake this is! It has an air of a Canadian Autumn to it, I think, and the quince frosting takes it to a whole new level. If you don’t have quince syrup on hand I reckon maple syrup would do just as lovely a job. To make the cake extra delicious make sure you use freshly ground spices. Pre-ground spices lose much of their flavour over time, but freshly ground is something else indeed. Trust me, it’s worth the extra effort.
I made this cake to share during an afternoon tea with a visiting friend. We ate our cake with hot mugs of cardamom coffee, a deliciously fragrant recipe I found in a new cookery book out this month: World Food Cafe by Chris and Carolyn Caldicott. You can read my very first book review and guest post about it over on Fuss Free Flavours.
Apple Cardamom Cake with Quince Frosting
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 115 grams light brown muscovado sugar
- 113 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 small eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 220 grams plain flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 100 grams raw almonds, coarsely chopped
- 365 grams apples, peeled, cored and diced finely
- 250 grams full fat cream cheese
- 100 grams icing sugar
- 1 tbsp quince syrup
- 20 grams raw almonds, coarsely chopped
- quince syrup, to serve
6. Leave to cool in the tin before transferring to an airtight container until the next day.
1. Blend the cream cheese, sieved icing sugar and quince syrup together until smooth.
2. Spread over the top of the cake and sprinkle over the chopped nuts.
1. To serve, cut cake into 4 x 4 (16) squares and drizzle with quince syrup.
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 18 Servings
I am sharing this Autumnal recipe with a few other blogging challenges too, including Feel Good Food by Victoria Lee at A Kick at the Pantry Door, as this month’s theme is apples. This challenge is a blog hop, so scroll down and see what other foodies are making with apples this month.
I’m also sharing this with the Four Season’s Food challenge by Louisa at Chez Foti and Anneli at Delicieux. This month’s theme is ‘Sliding into Autumn’ and I think this recipe fits perfectly.
Broad Bean & Courgette Salad
interesting recipe, some great idea on your blog
Recipe seen delicious, greeting from Belgium
I’ve never eaten quince either so am quite curious about it now! This looks like a lovely autumnal bake. Thanks for entering Alphabakes!
I love quinces – though I confess I have had some in the fridge for a few weeks while I search for the time to do something with them – this looks great – the perfume of quinces is just gorgeous
Absolutely stunning cake indeed! Perfect flavour combinations and gorgeous pics. Definitely a quince-idence that you found the quince syrup. Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.
Oh Elizabeth, you are sounding homesick. I’m not surprised, your bit of Canada sounds grand. I’d love to see one of those autumns. Having Anne of Green Gables as one of my favourite childhood books, I’ve always been keen to visit.
Your cake looks super scrumptious. I love quinces, they have a very aromatic scent and taste. We were hoping my mother’s quince – planted a couple of years ago would fruit this year, but no luck.
You’re right; I am feeling homesick these days. There are a lot of things about my home country I am missing just now. Anne of Green Gables was one of my favourite childhood books too and hopefully your mother’s quince will fruit next year. 🙂
You have her hair too – I am deeply envious of that.
I;m always looking for new things to try cardamom in and this look perfect! Yum!
Thank you, I do hope you try it! Let me know if you do. 🙂
How beautiful! Wow, never tried quince in a cake but have made quince jam. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays.
Thanks! Quince jam sounds heavenly!
I adore apple cake and this one looks amazing. Wish I had some right now… Where did you find quince syrup?
By the way quince and honey go very well together – thinking with something salty like feta.
Thank you Lucy! I bought the quince syrup at our local wholefoods shop. I found it in their bargain reduced items basket! There’s still half a bottle left… quince and honey you say? Hhmmmmm….!
Now that is one very moreish looking cake. I’ve never tried quince so will have to add it to my ‘to try’ list. It was lovely to see your photo on foodgawker.
Thank you! It really was scrummy indeed and I was so super chuffed to have my photo accepted!
This looks amazing. I am also jealous of you seeing Northern lights, never seen them and want to
Thank you! The northern lights are really something quite spectacular indeed: one of the perks of living so far north!
I love the idea of apple with cardamom. Sounds divine and like the perfect autumn treat!
The two flavours really work well together, I think. The icing takes it to a whole new level though!
Absolutely wonderful, so rich and you want to lean into the screen and eat it! Thanks for linking up, I’d love you to join in with #SundayPropShop. Share any post where you have styled up your food shots – love the placement of the raw ingredients http://capturebylucy.com/blog/sunday-prop-shop
Thanks Lucy, and I’ll see what I can do with #SundayPropShop 🙂
Your cake looks so good – rich, dense and packed full of nuggets of apple and almond! And don’t get me started about your quince frosting….I think I would like to eat that with a spoon 🙂 Your photos of the cake and also Cape Breton are just lovely. Thanks for entering this into Four Seasons Food x
Thank you Anneli, I’m glad you like!
What a beautiful blog this is and my what a cake! It looks amazing.
I smiled when you said you grew up in Canada. When I see the picture of you standing in the kitchen it made me think of Anne of Green Gables for some reason. One of my favourite childhood books.
Aw thank you! This is not the first time I’ve been mistaken for Anne of Green Gables (one of my childhood favourites as well – in fact, I loved everything written by L.M. Montgomery then). I used to get all stroppy as a child exclaiming, “Anne has green eyes, I have blue, can’t you see them!”
oh my gawd this is a stunning cake!… i’ve not cooked with quince but I know Karen from L&L is a big fan and have always wanted to use it in some way… this just looks simply gorgeous and your photo’s are amazing!… so scrummy x
Thank you Dom! This was my first time using quince as well (well, sort of – I’ve still never laid eyes upon the actual fruit!)
This sounds delicious!! I had no idea that quince was so similar in flavour to apples and pears- for some reason I thought it would be a SAVOURY flavour!! xx
I had no idea what to expect either. It doesn’t sound like a very sweet name, does it! We were pleasantly surprised 🙂