Omi's Apfelkuchen (Lecker!)

Pre heat oven to 200c, then peel and cut the apples into slices add to sauce pan and heat. Add in 3 large pieces of lemon rind and a squeeze of half a lemon and add cinnamon to taste. Cook until the apples have softened a bit, and leave to cool.

On the kitchen counter add the flour, incorporate the baking powder into the flour and mix with fingers. Create a well in the flour and add the sugar to the centre (if you cannot find vanilla sugar - then use caster and add some good vanilla essence or even a fresh vanilla pod). Create another well in the sugar and crack in the egg.

With your fingers, begin mixing the egg into the sugar.

Add the softened butter and mix into the sugar mix. Then begin to incorporate the rest of the flour to make the sweet pastry.

Once needed together, separate the pastry into 2 even oprtions and from each, grab some spare pastry (equalling about a small handful). Grease the cake tin with some butter and with one of the halves of pastry, roll out, and line the bottom of the cake tin with the pastry (you can have this relatively thick - add to bottom of tin and add the cut off's to the other pile of pastry). Prick the pastry and add into the oven for approx 20 mins - sometimes a little less - until just golden.

Take out and let it cool a little.

Once the cake tin has cooled, take the sausages of pastry, and line round the circumference of the cake tin, then with your fingers, press the pastry up the edges of the tin so you are joining the baked bottom half, and creating the edge of the cake - if you need to add some more, just take some pastry from the other mixture - make sure there are no holes round the edges. Take the lemon peel out of the apples mixture, and add the mixture to the cake tin and spread around evenly.

Then add your top rolled pastry, covering all the apples, and press together the edges of the pastry, with the edges you created up the sides of the tin with your finger so all the pastry in cases the mixture and is sealed all round. Prick the top of the pastry and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden.

Mix together a good amount of icing sugar and freshly squeezed lemon to create the icing. Once cake has cooled, put it on a plate and ice with the lemon and icing mix. Then get a big knife, cut yourself a piece and serve it with a big dollop of cream and a big cup of coffee!!!

You can experiment with the filling. I have created and Apfelkuchen with Amaretto soaked cherries and lime icing, which has a great festive taste. You can include dried fruits, pears, or whatever takes your fancy. It is also really good the next day when the cake has rested and the flavours have combined.