Apple Puree In Apple And Almond Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Apple And Almond Cake (from FEAST) does not contain any butter but uses a combination of apple puree, ground almonds (almond meal) and eggs to give a moist and buttery-tasting cake that is also gluten free. Nigella's recipe uses a lightly sweetened homemade puree, though you can use 285g (1 cup) of store bought or ready made puree. If the puree is store bought then it is likely to have very little sugar added but you can check by looking at the ingredients and nutritional infomation on the packaging. If it is homemade then it may have some sugar added, but probably not enough to warrant reducing the sugar in the recipe. The sugar in the recipe does add some structure to the cake, as well as sweetness, so if you did want to reduce the sugar slightly we would only reduce it by 2-3 tablespoons (30-45g) and please note that we have not tested the cake with reduced sugar so cannot guarantee the results.

The ground almonds used in the cake are usually finely ground and sometimes called almond flour. Almond meal is also finely ground and the difference is that almond meal is usually made from almonds with the skins on whereas ground almonds and almond flour are usually made with blanched (skinned) almonds. In some areas almond meal is easier to find in supermarkets than fine ground almonds and the two are interchangeable for this recipe. So if you are using finely ground almonds just use exactly the same amount as listed in the recipe for almond meal or ground almonds (i.e. 325g/3 1/4 cups).