A tipsy cake is usually a trifle-like concoction of booze-soaked Madeira cake or sponge layered with whipped cream and the odd bit of fruit. Ours is a deconstructed version, although it would work just as well piled into one bowl and left overnight for the brandy to soak in.
Ingredients
Brandy apples
Method
Main
1.Preheat oven to 160C. Beat butter, sugar, cinnamon and lemon rind in an electric mixer until very pale and fluffy (4-5 minutes), scrape down sides of bowl, then beat in eggs and yolk to combine. Stir in flour, almond meal and baking powder, then milk and lemon juice and spoon into an 11cm x 21cm loaf tin buttered and lined with baking paper. Scatter with almonds and bake until cake is light golden and a skewer withdraws clean (45-50 minutes). Cool in tin for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Keep warm or cool to room temperature.
2.Meanwhile, whisk cream, sour cream and icing sugar in an electric mixer until soft peaks form (3-4 minutes). Refrigerate until required.
3.For brandy apples, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add apples and toss to coat. Sieve over one-third of the icing sugar and cook, tossing pan occasionally, until starting to caramelise (4-5 minutes), sieve over half the remaining icing sugar and repeat. Repeat with remaining icing sugar, then, when apples are tender and caramelised (8-10 minutes), add brandy and toss to combine. Keep warm or cool to room temperature.
4.To serve, thickly slice cake and break into serving bowls. Drizzle with brandy to taste, top with cream mixture, spoon over brandy apples and caramel and serve.
This recipe is from the June 2012 issue of .
Notes