Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. If it's not yours, I bet it will become, after you will have tried these delicious apple loaf cakes with cardamom and vanilla. Extremely easy and it doesn't take too much time to make. The perfect breakfast for those lazy Fall days! A little treat:)
How to make these apple mini loaf cakes
If there's a cake (mini cakes in this case) that you should make to start with, that is loaf cake.
It's basically cake baked into a loaf pan, and it's extremely simple!
In this version, you'll find a very light batter (it's definitely more on the runny side rather than thick), flavoured with cardamom powder and vanilla bean paste. Final touch? Thinly sliced apple on top of each mini cake.
I love their delicate flavour so much!
To make them, follow the classic "wet to dry ingredients" method:
- Combine wet
First mix lemon juice and milk.
In another bowl, combine sugar and oil (it won't whip like butter and sugar, so no worries if they don't look fluffy), then add eggs, milk and vanilla paste. Stir. - Combine dry
Into another bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Roughly stir with a fork. - Add wet to dry
Incorporating wet ingredients to the dry ones allows you to avoid clumps.
Mix.
Final touch: add sliced apples on top.
Choose your favorite apples! No matter if they're slightly tangy (we're going to add some syrup on top).
If you don't know what to pick, choose Golden Delicious. - Bake!
I'va baked these for 25 minutes then brushed with some syrup (directions below), and baked for 5 more minutes. They were perfect!
BEST PART: you can leave cardamom and apples out or substitute them for something else (I would keep the vanilla in any case).
Or, try to use yogurt instead of milk + lemon juice.
My advice: try yogurt and raspberries, so tasty!
Does cardamom go with vanilla?
Oh definitely! Remember in this post I told you I bought a book, a while ago, called The Flavor Matrix? That is my best friend in the kitchen right now.
This book is “a revolutionary guide to pairing ingredients, based on a famous chef’s groundbreaking research into the chemical basis of flavor".
Both vanilla and cardamom belong to the 'terpene' family ("a diverse class of organic compounds, produced by a variety of plants").
The first is considered a 'smoke' flavour (these flavours often originate from wood), the latter 'spice' (no explanation needed).
And they go amazing together.
Fascinating, uh?
What fruit goes with cardamom?
So, maybe you want to try to use another kind of fruit, instead of apples.
Just know that if you substitute them with pears, these loaf cakes will be amazing.
And no wonder they work with cardamom too, apples and pears (and quince) are from the same family, they're pome fruits!
Berries and citruses work as well (especially citruses)!
If you try any of these combinations, let me know!
How to store them
I usually store my cakes/loaf cakes/muffins into an airtight container at room temperature (or into the fridge if I've used ricotta or something "fresh").
My tip: when you want to eat them, warm them up using your microwave. A few seconds are enough.
If you make this recipe, please be sure to give it a rating and leave a comment! It would make me so happy! 🙂
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Apple Loaf Cakes With Cardamom And Vanilla
Equipment
- 4 small paper loaf tins (about 4 x 2 inches)
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Brown sugar - 65 gr
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon Oil - 50 gr
- 2 Eggs (at room temperature)
- ½ cup (approximately) Milk (at room temperature) - 80 gr
- 2 tablespoons Lemon juice
- ½ tablespoon Vanilla paste or extract
- ½ + ⅓ cup All purpose flour - 100 gr
- 2 tablespoons Cornstarch - 10 gr
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder - 4 gr
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Cardamom powder
- 1 Sliced apple - (your favorite variety)
Syrup:
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Water
- 1 tablespoon Brown sugar
- ½ tablespoon Lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350° F (175° C)
- Into a small cup, mix milk and lemon juice.
- Into the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand), whisk sugar and oil for about 30 seconds/1 minute. (medium speed)
- Add eggs, milk and vanilla paste (or extract). Keep stirring for 30 seconds.
- In another bowl, add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Stir with a fork.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix at medium speed just until incorporated. Avoid overmixing.
- Pour the batter into the mini loaf pans.
- Place some apple slices on top of the batter.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. While baking, make a syrup with ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon of water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, half a tablespoon of lemon juice: pour everything into a small pan, let dissolve, then turn off and let cool down.
- After 25 minutes, brush the loaf cakes with this syrup then bake for 5 more minutes.
Nutrition
Check out the other recipes from the #AppleCakesSeries: fig ricotta apple cake & maple caramel apple cheesecake!
© Healthy Little Cravings – Roberta Dall’Alba.
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Judith Haran says
I wonder if you could make a variation on this by covering the bottom of an 8" square glass pan with apple slices, and then pouring the batter on top as in a clafouti. I think I'll try this and see what happens!
Roberta says
Hi Judith, that would be a different recipe then, I cannot guarantee:) let me know