ITALIAN APPLE CAKE (Torta di Mele)

“Eight Red Astrakan, two Wilton Twig, three Hubbardston Nonsuch, one Keswick Codlin …” The orchard plan from a page in Joseph Gundry’s 1869 daybook reads like a fantasy of heritage apples. But if you visit Gundry’s former estate in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, these apples no longer exist—gone along with three quarters of the 17,000 apple varieties that used to thrive in the United States. In ongoing efforts to turn this around, orchardists and plant geneticists have succeeded in bringing some heritage apple varieties back from the brink. That means you’re more likely to find them at farmers markets this season! This beautiful, easy-to-make vintage apple cake is the perfect showcase for any of them. Made with simple ingredients that allow the apple flavors to stand out, the cake is tall and tender.

Known as Torta di Mele in Italy, the cake goes back centuries, with all sorts of regional variations. Some mix in nuts or dried fruit. Others add cinnamon or a fancy spiral of sliced fruit on top. But all versions keep apples at the cake’s core.

Our delicious version requires just one mixing bowl and a handful of ingredients: butter, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, yeast and plenty of fresh chopped apples. Oh, and a sprinkling of lemon zest, of course! We baked several cakes as part of our testing. One shown in the main photo was made with easily obtainable Honeycrisp. Another (shown in the ingredient photo) was made with heirloom Discovery apples from Nichols Farm in Marengo, Illinois, which originated in Essex, England in 1949 and are a cross between Worcester Pearmain and Beauty of Bath apples. Our tests showed that any apple will do.

If you want to make the cake look fancier, you can spiral slices of some of the apple on the top of the cake before baking, but we opted to simply chop the apples into bite-sized pieces and stir them all in. Not too sweet, this cake works well for coffee or tea, or—with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

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Serves 8 (Makes one, tall 9-inch cake)

INGREDIENTS

• 1, 9-inch springform cake tin
• Baking parchment paper
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 pkg. instant yeast to measure just under 1 Tbsp
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) softened butter
• Zest of two fresh lemons
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup lightly warmed (room temperature) milk
• 6 small or 4 large apples
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar

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INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter sides and bottom of a 9-inch springform cake pan. Line bottom and sides with baking parchment and butter the parchment. Set aside. In a bowl, stir flour, ¾ cup sugar, yeast, and salt together. Set aside. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or by hand, beat butter until very smooth. Add lemon zest. Beat in eggs, scraping the sides of the mixer bowl. Stir in the flour/sugar/yeast/salt mixture, adding the warm milk to make a smooth batter. Allow batter to rest while you core and chop apples into bite-sized pieces. Fold in the chopped apples until well dispersed through the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform cake pan. Sprinkle the ¼ cup of turbinado sugar over the surface of the cake. (This will look like a lot, but it adds perfect crunch to the cake once baked.) Place in oven and bake for 55 minutes to one hour at 350 degrees until the cake has crowned, is golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Do not overbake. Remove from oven. Rest cake to cool for 20 minutes. Remove from springform tin. Discard parchment. Place cake on serving platter. Slice and serve warm.