Name: Glazed Apple, Date & Pecan Cake
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 3/4 c. (170 g.) butter, melted and cooled, plus more for pan; 3 large eggs; 2 3/4 c. (350 g.) cake flour; 4 tsp. baking powder; 2 tsp. ground cinnamon; 1 1/4 c. (150 g.) light muscovado sugar; 3 medium apples, such as Coxes; 3/4 c. (100 g.) soft pitted dates, roughly chopped; 1/2 c. (50 g.) pecans, roughly chopped; 6 tbsp. apricot jam

recipe

Uncategorized

Recipe

Hearst Editorial

- Yes, I know you're determined, aren't you? He looks very sweet, but he can be a little bit naughty. I'm Carolyn Robb, former Royal Chef to Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Prince William, and Prince Harry. And I'm going to make the most delicious apple, date, and pecan cake, which was always a great favorite when served for afternoon tea. (pleasant music) As chef to Prince Charles, it was always really important to use ingredients that were in season. In the fall, we have the most beautiful apples, particularly at Sandringham House in Norfolk, which we always visited at this time of year. There were incredible orchards with wonderful apples in them. So this cake, which has apples, dates, and pecans, is perfect for an autumn afternoon tea, particularly if people have been outside in the cold. It's wonderful to come home to a nice hearty slice of cake. It's quite funny that while this is a cake that Prince Charles would serve, it's not one that he would eat because he really doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. Before I start making the cake batter, I'm going to preheat the oven to 160 degree centigrade. This cake is full of wholesome ingredients. It's got dates, it's got pecans, lots of lovely, fresh apple, and obviously a good quantity of butter and sugar to bind it all together. The first step in making this cake is to prepare the wet ingredients. So I'm going to melt the butter. This recipe calls for quite a lot of butter, but it makes it really moist and delicious. One of the first things I learned when I cooked with my mum as a child, was breaking eggs, and how important it is to break them individually so that if one of them is bad, or you get some shell in, you don't ruin the whole batch. I use a knife to crack eggs, but there are lots of different ways to do it. You can crack it on the surface, or even on the side of the bowl. I'm just going to whisk these eggs lightly with a fork before mixing them in with the melted butter. I've left the melted butter to cool a little before adding it to the egg, so it doesn't cook it when we mix the two together. I'm going to set the butter and eggs aside now, while I sift together the dry ingredients. We're sifting the flour, because it always makes for a lighter cake if you've sifted the dry ingredients, and also just in case there are any lumps, or anything in there that shouldn't be in there. Not long after I'd started cooking for Prince Charles, I had my first experience of Sandringham. I traveled there, arriving late on a Friday evening, and it was a rather cold, dark evening. I do vividly remember my first job, which was to be sent outside, onto the veranda at the back of the kitchen with a huge sack of pheasants to pluck. The autumn in England is the season for pheasant shooting. So at that time of year, pheasant was something that we would quite often cook. Now for the baking powder, I'm going to add five teaspoons. And I'm going to add two teaspoons of grand cinnamon. Lastly, I'm going to add in the muscovado sugar, which I'm going to sift as well, because this does tend to have quite a few lumps in it. Now we're going to mix this all together. (energetic instrumental music) On the Sandringham Estate, which belongs to the Queen, there's some incredible apple orchards. And one of the things I always looked forward to the most when we went there, was the apples that we were going to be able to use, and the wonderful crates of apples that would be delivered to the kitchen, fresh from the orchard. Now I'm going to prepare the apples. I'm not going to peel them, but I'm going to dice them quite finely, into about a quarter inch dice. (energetic instrumental music) I think that dates are underrated, and I know that they're not very often used in cooking in America, but I add them into this cake because they add a lovely flavor of toffee and caramel. Really important to remember to take the stones out of these dates before I chop them. Now I'm going to chop up the dates. I'm going to cut them up quite fine, slightly finer than the apple. And after that, the last thing I need to do is to dice the pecans. Before chopping the pecans, take out a couple and save them for the top. (cheerful instrumental music) Now I'm going to add in the pecans, the apple, and the date, and mix them into the dry ingredients. (cheerful instrumental music) And then lastly, I'll stir in the egg and butter. This seems like quite a dry cake batter, but because there's so much freshly diced apple in it, the juice comes out of the apple, and that's what makes the cake really nice and moist. Aside from cooking this cake for Royal afternoon tea parties, it's always a great favorite with family and friends as well. Now I'm going to transfer this into this nine inch spring form tin, which I have base lined and I have put butter on the sides. I'm going to smooth out the top with my pallet knife, because I'm going to add very thin slices of apple, so it needs a flat surface to sit on. I'm going to use a mandolin to slice the apple. It'll slice it really thinly, and that means that when it's cooking, the edges will curl up beautifully, and it looks really pretty. I'm going to start by just cutting off the end of the apple. This is really sharp, and really rather dangerous, so you have to be incredibly careful not to lose your fingertips. I'm going to slice this apple, and I will do most of it. (pleasant instrumental music) Now I'm going to arrange these slices on the top of the cake in a circle. (pleasant instrumental music) These apple slices are quite close together, but during cooking, they do shrink quite a lot. So I've laid them all around the outside, and a few in the center, and then I've finished with the two remaining pecans. This is a really delicious cake, but as with all cooking it comes down to the ingredients that you use. And Prince Charles was a great supporter, and a great leader of the organic movement. He had one of the first organically certified farms in the UK, and lately the farm at Sandringham, and the estate at Sandringham has also become organic. So the apples that we use there were always beautifully, freshly picked, organic apples. Now I'm going to put the cake in the oven to bake. I always stand it on a baking sheet. This just ensures that the cake cooks through really well. The cake's been in the oven for 45 minutes, and it's cooked now. Once the cake is out of the oven, it's time to prepare the apricot glaze, which is very simple. We're essentially just using a very good quality apricot jam as the glaze for the top of the cake. This is available readily in most supermarkets. We just put it in a pan on the stove and heat it gently. And now I'm going to loosen the tin and take it out. Looks like it's come out really well, so now I'm going to glaze it. This is adding the final finishing touch. (energetic instrumental music) The smell of this cake really takes me back to my time at Sandringham. I have happy memories of many wonderful afternoon teas that I prepared. Although I always stayed in the kitchen, I didn't go through to the front of the house. I know that where the afternoon tea was served was a beautifully elegant white drawing room. When we had shooting weekends at Sandringham, generally there were about 20 guests, and in the kitchen they would've been three or four chefs. So we were kept quite busy, because as well as feeding the guests, we would feed all the staff members as well. So there was always someone needing a meal. Once I've finished lazing the cake, we're going to leave it to cool for a little while, and then it's ready to serve. (cheerful instrumental music) This is definitely one of my favorite cakes, because it has so many different flavors and textures, starting with the lovely, sticky, toffee-like dates and the slightly tart, moist apples, and then the crunchy pecans, and all of that has a layer of cinnamon. It's a really delicious cake. Eating this definitely reminds me of Sandringham, and takes me back to many happy times that I spent there. You can find more recipes like this in my new book, "Tea at the Palace." There are lots of wonderful dessert ideas as well, if you go to delish.com (pleasant instrumental music)

Ever wondered what Prince Charles serves his guests during afternoon tea? No need! Former Royal Chef Carolyn Robb takes us through this delicious Apple Date & Pecan Cake recipe that will sure to be the star of your next tea time hangout!

Glazed Apple, Date & Pecan Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Recipe Headquarters