Apple and Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing (recipe origin: Ottolenghi, London)

Ingredients for cake:

◦280g plain flour
◦1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
◦1/4 tsp salt
◦1/2 tsp salt
◦1/2 tsp baking powder
◦1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
◦120ml olive oil
◦160g caster sugar
◦2tsp vanilla extract
◦2 eggs
◦3 Bramley apples, peeled cored and chopped into 1cm dice
◦grated zest of 1 lemon
◦2 egg whites
Ingredients for icing

◦100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
◦100g light muscavado sugar
◦85ml maple syrup (or golden syrup)
◦220g cream cheese, at room temperature
Preheat the oven to 170C. Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Meanwhile, whisk the olive oil, vanilla and sugar (preferably with an electric whisk) together until voluminous and smooth. Next whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the apples and lemon zest and then the flour. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold carefully into the cake batter. Grease and line two sandwich tins and bake for 45 mins until a cake batter comes out clean. Once cooked, allow the cakes to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, beat together the butter and maple syrup and sugar until light and airy. Next add in the cream cheese and beat until it’s totally smooth (preferably with the whisk attachment). Use half of the icing to the sandwich the cakes together, and smooth the remaining frosting up on top.