Sicilian Apple Cake

You must make this cake, seriously, just do it. This is a recipe from the Zarbo cookbook 'Zarbo, Recipes From a New Zealand Deli' by Mark McDonough. It is quite simply, outstanding.



Sicilian Apple Cake
50g/2OZ of walnut pieces
120g/4 OZ butter, melted
1/2 kg/1 lb of apples, cored and sliced
1/2 a lemon, zest and juice
150g/5OZ plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
3 eggs
250g/9OZ sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
100 mls milk
1/4 of a cup of raisins
1/8 of a cup of pine nuts
1 tablesppon of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Lots of bowls

Toast the walnuts in the oven at 170C/340F for about 10 mins. Make sure they don't burn.
Line a 23cm cake tin with baking paper. Pour a little of the melted butter into the tin and sprinkle over the toasted walnuts.
In a bowl, mix the sliced apples with the lemon zest and juice.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder
In a third bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence. Mix in the milk and the rest of the butter. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
Pour half the batter over the walnuts in your cake tin. Arrange half of the apples, juice and zest over the batter and sprinkle over half the raisins. Pour the rest of the batter into the tin and arrange the rest of the apples, zest and juice and sprinkle over the rest of the raisins. Lastly sprinkle on the pine nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon.
Bake at 170C/340F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The cake may even take a little longer than that to cook. It should be set but still moist. Cover the top with baking paper if it begins to brown while cooking. If you don't succeed on your first attempt keep trying, it really is something special.