Egyptian Olive Oil and Apple Cake

Ingredients
280g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
100ml extra virgin olive oil
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
4 red apples, peeled and cut in 1cm dice
45ml milk
2 egg whites



Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C, grease 2 x 25cm cake tins and line with baking paper.

2. Combine the sugar, vanilla extract and oil into a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to whisk the sugar and oil till light and fluffy (about 5-10 minutes on high). Add the eggs one at a time, whisking until creamy and pale in colour.

3. Sift all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold half of the dry ingredients gently into the egg mixture with a metal spoon. Add the milk and fold the rest of the flour in. Do not over work the batter. Fold in the diced apples. Whip the egg whites to soft peaks and fold the egg whites into the cake batter.

4. Divide the cake mixture between the two cake moulds giving two fairly shallow cakes, if you like a higher cake only use one cake tin. Place the cakes in the preheated oven on the middle shelf and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

5. Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and let the cool in the tin for 10 minutes, turn them out on to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

Bon appetite!