APPLE AND ORANGE TEA CAKE

This cake is a variation of a cake I make all the time. It's a butter/oil free tea cake with apple and orange zest. So no butter, no oil but a lovely and creamy mascarpone cheese, mostly used to make the famous Italian Tiramisu. Mascarpone gives a light and moist texture to the cake, and the orange zest a nice perfumed flavour. This recipe is really simple to make and you will only need one bowl. So if you are tired of doing the dishes, this is for you!

iNGREDiENTS:

• 250 gr mascarpone
• 220 gr organic cane sugar (preferable but not essential)
• 250 gr all purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 small orange (zest + juice of half of the orange)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 big apple
• 1 pear (the pear will bring more moistness to the cake)

RECiPE:

• Preheat your oven at 180°C (350°F)
• In a bowl, stir together: mascarpone + sugar + eggs, until creamy.
• Add: flour + baking powder and stir again.
• Add the lemon and orange zest + juice of half the orange. Stir again.
• Peel and core the apple and the pear and cut them in pieces. This time I cut them in thin small slices but depending on how you like it, you can also make big pieces.
• Add them to the batter and stir one last time.
• Put the batter into a prepared baking pan (greased with butter). 

• Bake from 40 to 60 minutes, when a skewer will come out clean, it's done. The baking time will really depend on your oven and cake pan size. Start checking after 30 minutes. You might have to cover the cake with foil after about 30min to stop the top from over-browning.
• ET VOiLÀ!