Apple/pear layer cake

This cake came to life as I had some apples and pears that I used for an apple/pear sauce. This could have been frozen for later use in a dessert, made into sorbet, used as topping on your morning yogurt …or something else. I decided to use it as the main filling in a cake, added honey roasted pecans, crumbled macaroons and whipped cream. It turned out delicious and is definitely something I will do again when having some apples, pears or both that can no longer be eaten raw.

I did prepare all the parts from scratch, but you could skip baking the sponge cake and buy it ready made and even the macaroons could be skipped or rather bought instead of baked. They are easily baked however, time can sometimes be a limiting factor.

Ingredients:

Sponge cakes:

4 eggs

100 g sugar

100 g hvedemel

8 g baking powder

Macaroons – not the French ones

1 egg white

50 g sugar

50 g almond flour

Honey roasted pecans

100 g pecan nuts

1 tbsp honey

Apple/pear sauce

400 g fruit (as it really depends on the amounts you have – you just need 400 g of cored fruit altogether. Of course, the more pear you have, the more the cake will taste of pear. If you only have apples, this is ok as well. It will just be an apple cake. It would be equally delicious!!)

100 g sugar

1/2 vanilla bean

1/4 cup water (appr. 50 ml.)

Filling

1 1/2 cup whipped cream (appr. 300 ml) mixed together with the honey roasted pecans and crumbled macaroons.

Topping

A good handful dry roasted pecans

2 1/2 cup whipped cream (appr. 5 dl)

Method:

Sponge cake 3 pieces

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees

Whisk of the eggs, add the sugar and whisk until quite thick. Add the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth – not too much – just thick and smooth.

Now – either you can line a round baking pan (22 cm in diameter) with baking paper and pour in the mixture. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or golden and set. You can see if it has baked sufficiently when moving the baking pan ..giving it a light push – the cake should be stiff and not wobbly. Take it out and let it cool for approximately 30 minutes. Remove from the pan, peal off the baking paper and let it cool completely. With the longest knife you have, cut/slice the cake into 3 layers.

Or – you can bake each layer separately. Divide the portion into 3 equal portions. Use a scale, weigh the entire batter and divide by 3 to get equal sized layers. With a pencil, draw a circle (using a baking pan to guide you) on 3 separate pieces of baking paper. Lay a piece of baking paper with a circle on a baking tray. Poor 1/3 of the portion on to the center of the circle and spread it by picking up the baking tray holding on to the baking paper and move it around in circular motions slowly filling in the circle. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Take it out and let it cool, while you do the next ones.

When almost cool – not quite though – gently remove the baking paper, and let the layers cool completely. It all sounds very complicated but once you get started, it is really quite easy and the layers will be nice and smooth and easier to work with than when you cut a cake in 3.

Macaroons

Whisk the egg white stiff, add the sugar and mix – it becomes a bit more gooey but is still quite stiff. Add in the almond flour and mix. Line a baking tray with baking paper and either pipe small macaroons (approximately the size of a ping pong ball in diameter) or simply use two spoons and shape.

Bake in the oven at 150 degrees for about 15 minutes – or until golden and crispy.

Take them out and let them cool. When cooled completely, crush by adding them to a bag, hammering them with a rolling pin.

Pecans

Heat up the honey until hot in a frying pan. Add the pecans and roast at medium heat until they are pretty much covered in honey – 5 minutes. Remove them from the heat and add them to a sheet of baking paper (you can re-use the baking paper from the sponge cake or the macaroons) and let them cool completely. Chop!

Apple/pear sauce

Depending on how fuzzy you are with peel, you can remove the peel and core the fruit. I usually leave the peel on and just simply core the fruit. Dice the fruit into 2 x 2 cm cubes. At medium heat, boil the fruit in a pot together with sugar, 1/2 scraped vanilla bean together with the shell (for taste), 1/4 cup (appr. 50 ml. water) and cook under lid for about 20 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean shell. Process the fruit with a handheld blender and if quite runny, cook while stirring for another 5 minutes without a lid, – to boil off the water. The sauce will also set a bit when cooled.

Filling

Whip the cream, add the crushed and crumbled macaroons and the chopped honey roasted pecans – mix gently.

Topping

Dry roast the pecan nuts on a frying pan for about 5 minutes. Let them cool and roughly chop them. Whip the cream for piping or spreading with the flat side of a knife.

Building/Assembling the cake

Place the first layer of sponge cake on a serving plate. Add 1/2 the apple/pear sauce and smooth out evenly. Add half the mix of the whipped cream, honey roasted pecans and crushed macaroons and gently distribute/smooth out with the flat side of a knife. Add the second layer of sponge cake and repeat. Add the third layer of sponge cake. Decorate with the big portion of whipped cream (the 5 dl.) Sprinkle with the dry roasted chopped pecans.

I does all sound very complicated – but it is more a question about timing. You can prepare everything well in advance – several days actually – but the whipped cream. Or you can start with the sauce and the sponge cake and do the other parts along the way while the sauce is cooking and the sponge cake and the macaroons are in the oven.

On a note – if you find pecans hard to come by or simply too expensive – use walnuts. They are good as well.