Apple, Raisin and Cream Cheese Cake
Inroduction
About this Recipe
By: Sheridan Rogers
This luscious three-layered cake is from my new book The Cook’s Garden (NH $49.95), in-store now. It’s easy to make and you can serve it for afternoon tea, or warm as a dessert with cream.
Ingredients
- softened unsalted butter 185g
- caster sugar 90g
- lemon zest 1, finely grated
- egg yolk 1
- plain flour 185g
- cold water 1 tablespoon
- cream cheese 250g, chopped or broken into pieces
- eggs 2
- caster sugar 90g
- vanilla essence 1 teaspoon
- raisins 45g, seedless, soaked in 3 tablespoons dark rum
- Granny Smith apples 4, peeled and thinly sliced
- cinnamon 2 teaspoons
Serves 10 – 12 Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). For the pastry: Cream together the butter and sugar, add zest and egg yolk. Fold in the sifted flour and water. Form into a ball with your hands and wrap in greaseproof paper. Chill for ½—1 hour. Remove from refrigerator and press over the base of a 24 cm (9½ in) springform pan, reserving a third for the top. For the cream cheese filling: blend all the ingredients together in a food processor or beat together well in an electric mixer. For the apple raisin mix: toss together the soaked raisins with the apples and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour the cream cheese filling over pastry base and top with apple mix. Divide the reserved pastry into five pieces. Press the pieces between the palms of your hands into small circles. Lay over the top to form a pretty pattern. Bake for 1–1¼ hours, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When cool, remove from springform pan, and dust with icing sugar.