A delightful apple traybake made with white chocolate and lightly flavoured with rose. Chunky pieces of white chocolate caramelise as the cake bakes and create a delicious toffee apple flavour. The cream cheese icing is totally lush and raises the bake up to a higher level than just a simple traybake.
When I was asked if I’d like to bake some cakes as samples for Liskeard’s Fine Food event a couple of weeks ago, how could I refuse? I had to come up with something tasty and quick to bake that I could easily cut into smallish pieces. Most importantly of all I needed to include chocolate. As apples were in season, I felt honour bound to include these too.
Eat Your Books came up trumps again and gave me sticky maple-apple traybake from Linda Collister’s How to Bake. This is from the 2nd series of The Great British Bake Off. I didn’t have any maple syrup, but I did have rose syrup and this I thought would go exceedingly well with apples.
Apple & White Chocolate Traybake
Because of the rose syrup, I omitted some of the flavourings that were used in the original recipe. I really didn’t want to overwhelm the rose. In addition to making my usual adjustments with flour etc, I substituted white chocolate chips for the walnut pieces and omitted the additional egg whites.
In other words, this apple, rose and white chocolate cake is a completely different traybake to the one that inspired it.
As it happened I’d got a bag of Somerset windfall apples at home – one of the spoils from our recent Glastonbury trip. I’m not sure what type of apple they were, but they made a most delicious cake.
Feel free to swap the rose syrup for maple syrup. I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure it’s just as good.
Because this traybake had to go around as many people as possible, I cut it into small bitesize squares. I realised they’d be the perfect size for a buffet style party too.
The apple squares got a lot of positive feedback from the good folk of Liskeard. This was, of course, very gratifying. It was very appley with a just a hint of rose. It had a nice soft texture and was very light. The chunky bits of white chocolate had caramelised slightly giving a delicious toffee apple flavour – all the fun of the fair.
The cream cheese topping with its hint of rose and slight saltiness from the cheese gave a lushness to the cake which raised it to a higher plain than a simple traybake.
Waste Not
Waste is one of my pet hates. I have always tried to avoid wasting anything. These days I get particularly cross at the amount of electrical equipment that we have to send to land fill because we no longer have repair shops.
When it comes to food, I really can’t bear the thought of throwing anything away. One of my main drivers for having an allotment is so we can make compost, thus turning anything we can’t actually eat into food for the soil.
With this in mind and to support the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, Kate of Turquoise Lemons started a monthly No Waste Food Challenge. This month the theme is apples and as the apples I used were windfalls which would otherwise have gone to waste, I am submitting my cake to this month’s host, Elizabeth’s Kitchen.
Other Apple Cakes You Might Like
- Almond apple cider cake
- Apple crumble & custard cakes
- Irish apple cake
- Kale apple cake
- Toffee apple hazelnut cake
- Upside down apple cake
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this apple traybake, with or without the rose, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?
If you’d like more traybake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Apple Rose Traybake. PIN IT.
Apple Traybake – The Recipe
Apple Traybake
Ingredients
- 275 g flour (I used half wholemeal, half plain white)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 400 g apples windfalls, Bramley's or other cooking apples are best
- 150 g light muscovado sugar
- 125 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp rose syrup
- 2 large eggs separated (I used duck eggs)
- 50 g white chocolate chopped into small chunks
Cream Cheese Icing
- 75 g unsalted butter softened
- 75 g light muscovado sugar
- 175 g full fat cream cheese
- 3 tbsp rose syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4)
- Sift the flours into a bowl with the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.275 g flour, ½ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 1 pinch sea salt
- Peel, core and finely chop the apples. Then stir them through the flour to stop them browning.400 g apples
- In another bowl whisk the sugar and oil together.150 g light muscovado sugar, 125 ml sunflower oil
- Add the vanilla extract and rose syrup then whisk some more.1 tsp vanilla extract, 4 tbsp rose syrup
- Whisk the egg yolks, keeping the whites separate in a third bowl.2 large eggs
- Make a well in the flour and pour the egg mixture in. Stir gently from the middle outwards to mix the ingredients together.
- Stir in the chocolate chunks50 g white chocolate
- Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold them carefully into the batter, trying not to lose too much air.
- Scrape the batter into a 20 cm (9″) square silicone cake mould or lined tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden in colour.
- Leave in the mould to cool for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Icing
- Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy in texture.75 g unsalted butter, 75 g light muscovado sugar
- Beat in the cream cheese until just incorporated.175 g full fat cream cheese
- Stir in the rose syrup.3 tbsp rose syrup
- Spread onto the cooled cake.
- Cut into 36 small squares or 16 larger ones.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
It’s birthday time. Tea Time Treats is one year old and we’re helping Karen of Lavander and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked to celebrate. With cake. This apple traybake with cream cheese icing is my contribution. It’s simple but scrumptious and well worthy of a birthday celebration, especially if you stick a candle in each square.
As apples are very much in season now, I’m submitting my apple rose cake to Simple and in Season. This is a monthly challenge from Ren Behan that I try to enter when I can.
I’m also submitting the traybake to Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love. After all, I made everything from scratch, including the rose syrup.
Karen Moffat says
Hello. This apple tray bake with white chocolate recipe sounds amazing and I want to try it but I just can’t find any listing of the white chocolate in the recipe or in the ingredients so I don’t know how what quantity of white chocolate to use. Am I missing something?
Choclette says
Hi Karen
I’m so sorry. I’ve been tidying up recipe ingredients recently and I think that probably got deleted by accident along the way. It’s 50g of white chocolate cut up into small chunks. I will update the recipe right now. Thanks for alerting me to it.
Angie Hoggett says
wow, sounds amazing perfect for a special treat!
Fabulicious Food says
How much do I want a little cube of that cake? Perfect recipe for Simple and in Season, the round up is now live xx
Kit @ i-lostinausten says
Amazing combos! Can’t wait to try this awesome recipe! YUM! 🙂
Caroline says
What a delicious sounding combination of flavours Choclette – I can just imagine them working so well together. Your cake looks moist – I do love apples cooked into cakes, and how satisfying to be able to use windfalls.
Chele says
They look fab and the combo of flavours is a winner too. I am sure these went down a real treat with everyone at the event.
Phil in the Kitchen says
Lovely cake. Apple, rose and white choc sound wonderful together.
mylittleitaliankitchen says
Wonderful little bites..
Hannah says
Beautiful combination, looks fab!
thelittleloaf says
What a gorgeous combination of flavours. I especially love the look of that thick icing o top.
rita cooks italian says
This cake has risen perfectly in the oven! I always think that chocolate make the cake mix heavy, but your cakes always look soft and fluffy!! I like the white chocolate/apples combination!
Johanna GGG says
Sounds fantastic – just my sort of cake and even better if you have some windfall apples
Karen S Booth says
An absolutely fabulous entry into tea time treats, thanks so much Choclette, exotic flavours and a wonderful combination of flavours. I also make mu own rose syrup, and my mum makes a wonderful one with her old fashioned shrub roses, highly fragrant and very red, makes good jam too. Back to your cake, it is a beauty and I bet it was well received at Liskeard. Karen
A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate says
Lovely idea for a flavourful cake recipe and I have a bottle of rose syrup I need to use up too, so I’m up for this one x
underthebluegumtree says
Yum, that sounds gorgeous. Such a lovely combination of flavours.
Charlotte Charlotte'sKitchenDiary says
How lovely Choclette. I have never tried apple paired with rose, but I’m sure I would love it. What a gorgeous idea. I’ve added this to my baking list to tackle once the books are done!
laura@howtocookgoodfood says
What good flavours you have chosen and the look of this sponge is perfect. A really great way to make use of those windfall apples. I am now wishing I had made some rose syrup. I ended up using rose hips in a hedgerow jelly instead.
I imagine this cake was a big hit with everyone!
Javelin Warrior says
I love the beautiful texture of this cake, Choclette – it looks so moist with little bits of apple and white chocolate. And the frosting looks so tasty – I love a nice thick layer of frosting with my cake 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing (and don’t forget to add your link to the roundup)!
Janice says
Look delicious, struggling to do any challenges this month but there is still time !
manu says
Delicious!!
♥