Why an Invisible Apple Cake you ask? The magic trick comes from the very thinly sliced apples coated with a minimal amount of batter. When the cake is sliced the apple and batter are practically invisible.
If you are looking for the latest trend in baking, this is it! The invisible apple cake, or gâteau invisible aux pommes in French, was the trend in French baking starting last fall. Japan caught on to this fashionable cake pretty fast around February of this year. And it seems that North America is finally in the know. What perfect timing with fall and apple season just starting!
Don’t you LOVE the retro plate? I made this cake while I was at the cottage and this is one of the sets of dishes we have in our cupboards there. My mom hates it, I love it for the cottage. It reminds me of my grandmother.
My grandmother turned peeling apples into a fun game. Perhaps you know it as well? I think at the time it was one of the very popular “old wives tales” told to young girls. Watch the short video below to find out what the game was!
The Invisible Apple Cake Magic Trick Revealed!
Now to achieve the invisible effect you will want to cut evenly thin slices of apples, around 1/8 of an inch or 3 mm. Cutting your apples by hand can be very time consuming and your slices will be very inconsistent. The tool of choice here is definitely mandolin. I have had one for years that I got in Chinatown and it is the best tool to shred or slice veggies and fruits.
The safeguard that comes with it though sucks. One great trick I discovered what to use cut resistant gloves that prevent finger cuts and slicing! The gloves are great also for any hard knife job like cutting meat with bones or thick skinned squashes.
PIN IT FOR LATER https://www.pinterest.com/pin/266275396702029825
My next tip for a great invisible apple cake is to be careful when folding the apple slices into the batter. Mix them delicately as too not break your apples slices. Feel free to add slices to the batter as they are cut to prevent oxidization if you just left the apples out.
My final tip is to try to get the apples slices to be as horizontal as possible when you pour the apple batter mixture into the pan and make a neat flat top. Try a narrow pound cake tin to get height or an 8 inch pan for a thinner but lager cake. I used a 6 inch round pan for a small but tall cake.
Choosing an Ap-peeling apple!
Now you will want to choose good cooking apples for such recipes. You could try Cortland, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp or Empire … to name a few.
I used Norland apples that I picked myself at an orchard near my cottage. It’s a pretty new orchard in Lanaudière,quite a northern location for an orchard. But they specialize in heirloom and unusual varieties. I think they have about 25 varieties now. Check out this video of my day at the orchard with my friend Hania.
I am sure you will enjoy this fun and quick to make cake. You could play up the spices a bit more to your taste. This Invisible Apple Cake is just perfect for dessert at dinnertime, as an afternoon snack, or warmed up in thin slices in a pan with butter for breakfast (oh yeah, I did that!).
Invisible Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 5-6 cooking apples peeled and cored
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp butter melted
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- dash of nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- sliced almonds
- icing sugar
Instructions
- Place a piece of parchment paper at the bottom of a 6-inch springform pan and grease sides and paper lightly. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- With a stand or electric mixer, beat the eggs and the sugar for about 3 minutes or until fluffy. Add the melted butter, the milk and vanilla, and mix till combined.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix until just combined.
- Cut the apples in quarters and with a mandolin slice each piece into 1/8 in (3 mm) thick slices. Put the apple slices into the bowl with the batter and very gently stir to coat them with a silicone spatula, ensuring each slice is coated but without breaking the apple slice.
- Pour batter gently and evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top.
- Bake in the oven for 60 minutes or until set. If the almonds brown to fast cover loosely with aluminium foil. Cool cake completely in the pan. When cooled remove the pan and dust with icing sugar before serving.
You’re missing a step after step 4, where you say to coat the apples in the batter, but you never say how to arrange them in The pan, or what to do next with them.
Hi Terese,
Thank you for your message and pointing that out. I will rewrite the sentence to make it clearer.But when you coat the apple slices, I meant you put the apple slices into the bowl with the batter and gently stir to coat them.Then you just pour the batter into the prepared pan. There is no need to arrange the slices.
Thanks again!
Hah – shows you how up to date on trends I am…. not! FIrst time I’ve heard of the invisible fruit cake trend! ;o) Thanks for enlightening me! The cake looksivine and I have v happy memories of visiting Ontario in apple season – so many varieties I had never heard of!
Thanks Jeanne and I only found out my self a couple of month’s back so you are not so far behind ha! Now I feel like apple picking again.
HA! I thought it is invisible because the moment it goes out of the oven it will be gone due to its deliciousness 🙂
Definitely a mandolin needs to be used to achieve that effect. Great recipe
Well definitely another reason for it’s invisible name 🙂 Thanks Raymond
I had’t come across this invisible cake idea before but it looks very cool, not to mention delicious. And I’m with you, I LOVE that retro crockery. You can often find it in charity shops, I can’t resist it!
Thanks Kavey and there is plenty of retro crokery at the cottage lol.
I’d love to try this as I love apples in cooking! Bet it would be lovely with a cuppa!
First of all I do love the name of this cake. And it’s so pretty cut and pre-cut. A very different apple cake recipe and quite interesting. Thanks!!
Yes it is pretty unique, takes like a mix between a bread pudding or Dutch pancakes 🙂
One word I love here, apples, and another one I strongly dislike, mandolin! I bought a very nice one, used it once and gave it away. Scariest thing I’ve ever seen in the kitchen! 🙂
But you cake looks and sounds delicious, Evelyne! What a great dessert! We all love apple desserts here so this is a must try. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much Pam, glad you love the cake. A cheap mandolin is just as good…and with these gloves NO MORE FEARS lol!
My gosh I love the look of the apple cake. Great tip on the mandolin, I have used it to cut onions before and they cut super fine
Thanks Bintu and yes mandolins are great for all kinds of thing….cabbage, apples, slivers or carrots and cucumbers for salads,etc.
Very cool! I’d love to taste that pie!
Thank you Tam
What a fabulous cake! My kind of autumn treat. Bill does not like apple desserts as much as I do, but I may make it anyway!!!
Thank you Liz and if they are invisible enough maybe Bill will not notice lol?
We go apple picking every fall – usually multiple times – and this looks like a PERFECT cake to use some of those apples on! It wouldn’t last a day in our house 😀 Thank you for sharing!
I have gone twice already this summer myself lol. Happy picking and hope you give this recipe a try 🙂
Ha! I thought this caked was called that because it was more of a HOW FAST PEOPLE SHOVE THE CAKE IN THEIR FACES BECAUSE IT LOOKS SO DANG GOOD kinda thing?! lol
Well that too! I mean, there is no trace of the cake left anyways…..maybe it was all an ILLUSION lol.
This is the first I am hearing of this trend! Shows you that I live at the end of nowhere. I must try find those gloves 🙂
Well you may bring the trend to your part of the world and be a celebrity for it lol. It is traveling the globe apparently 🙂
So do you live in Quebec? I’m heading there in a few weeks for the first time, and I can’t wait! This recipe looks so amazing. In fact, I am printing out the recipe as I type this. I’m definitely going to give it a try!
yes i do, I live in Montreal? Heading that way (let me know)? Glad you like the recipe and let me know how it turns out!
What a fun recipe! Perfect as I have a whole bag of freshly picked apples!
Ha perfect timing indeed! Did you go pick them yourself?
Wow, I never knew there was such a new craze in baking! Let me try this one and get equipped to do it!
I am usually out of the loop in trends lol but I got ahead of this one. Let me know how yours turns out!
It’s like gedeckte Apfeltorte over here, but yours is better because of almond topping!
I had to google that gedeckte Apfeltorte lol, looks yummy. The almonds here are nice added touch 🙂
The safeguard on my mandoline sucks too, and I have one of those expensive stainless French jobbers (Mrs KR bought it for me decades ago in a fit of indulgence — if I were to get one today I’d get one of the inexpensive ones). So I’ve been using those cut-resistant gloves, too — although my mandoline STILL scares me to death! Anyway, love the whole invisible craze. This looks terrific — thanks.
Thanks John for your comment and so glad to hear I am not alone in the great use of mandolines but the dangers and of them and how it is a good idea of have those cut resistant gloves. Yes the cheap ones are just as good. Too bad I did not have the gloves with me at the cottage but I made out it unscathed lol.