Spiced Chunky Apple and Almond Cake

Almond meal with chia. It's like the world is revolving around superfoods nowadays. In a way, we are involuntarily forced to immerse ourselves into these kind of nutritious ingredients for several reasons. First, it is everywhere- cooking books, magazines, tv, internet, chemists and food aisle- you just can't go past. Secondly, with our busy daily life (or is it only me who feels that our days seems to have shortened), we need to sustain our body with enough energy quickly. The best and quickest way is to, of course, include some super foods into our regular meals. Thirdly, with our food having lower nutritional values due to pollution and overproduction, we need to compensate for this deficiency and here comes superfood again. Well superfoods do not have to come under fancy names since we have plenty of vegetables which are super nutritious such as sweet potatoes or kale. We also have fish like sardines and what not.  

Anyway, I had this almond meal with chia in my pantry and was not too sure what to make of it. There was one recipe on the back of the packaging. As such, decided to look up for more recipes on Luckynut's website and I came across this spiced apple and almond cake. I was instantly sold since the cake is flourless and I knew that it would taste good with reference to the list of ingredients. I didn't have all the spices required, but I compensated with more cinnamon- I do like cinnamon flavour so much now. I also topped the cake with some flaked almonds and glazed the latter with some apricot jam. The cake was perfectly moist with the right amount of sweetness. I served it with some icecream since it is so warm right now; I was taken to cloud nine.

Recipe: Adapted from Luckynuts:

• Ingredients
• 3 medium Granny Smith 
• 100g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing cake pan
• ½100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1½ tablespoons rice flour
• 1½ tablespoons maize cornflour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 100g (1 cup) LUCKY ALMOND MEAL WITH CHIA
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Flaked almonds
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam, mixed with some warm water

Directions

• 1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line base of a 20cm round tin.
• 2. Cut apples into quarters and remove core. Peel and cut one quarter into thin slices and reserve. Coarsely grate enough of the remaining apple to measure 11/4 cups.
• 3. Using an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• 4. Sift flours, baking powder and spices together over a bowl. Stir in the Almond Meal with Chia to combine well. Fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Stir in the vanilla and grated apple to combine well. Spread cake batter into prepared cake pan. Arrange the reserved apple slices over the surface.
• 5. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center.