Russia has officially won my heart when it comes to dessert. I’ve made some outrageous cakes, but today’s recipe is so simple and easy I promise anyone can make it. And you should. Because it will be your new favorite thing to serve friends and family.
This recipe has four ingredients.
I didn’t stutter.
Four.
You can add lemon zest (I did) or vanilla (I did) but at it’s most basic components, it’s four ingredients. And you probably have most of them already.
And it looks like the moon?!
It’s not moon cake. It’s Sharlotka.
The recipe requires you to use room temp eggs and whip them for nearly ten minutes. Promise it’s worth the effort because the cake has a meringue-like crust which makes cutting into it oh-so satisfying.
It’s not that sweet, so you can eat it every day until it’s gone without feeling like you need to take a nap after.
In fact, I strongly recommend having this with a cup of tea, after dinner, watching the Fyre documentary screaming “no no, make it stop, just no!” about 100 times before you pass out from an anxiety attack.
Or like, just have some cake.
Original recipe found here.
Apple Cake (Sharlotka)
(Start making 90 minutes before you want Sharlotka)
Preheat your oven to 350F. Part of the success of this recipe lies on having an even oven temp so try not to open the oven very often and if you have a convection setting, turn that on.
Line a 9 in springform pan with parchment paper and butter/flour it so your cake doesn’t stick. If you don’t have a springform pan, you could use any dish as long as it’s a few inches deep. Because this cake will puff up in the oven. A small/medium casserole dish would probably work.
Peel your apples and cut them into 1/4 inch slices. Think: thin, bite sized pieces. You could do whatever shape you want, I just think slices look the prettiest.
Arrange the sliced apples on the bottom of your pan.
Crack your room temp eggs and sugar into a medium sized bowl. Whip this with a hand blender (or, my god, your whisk/hand) for about 8-10 minutes. You’re looking for the eggs to triple in size and get fluffy. This is not meringue because the egg yolk is in there but you’ll still see fluff.
If you’re adding any vanilla or lemon, add it now. Carefully fold in the flour so you don’t break up the fluff you’ve created with your eggs.
Pour the batter over the apples so there’s no apple showing on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes when a toothpick comes out clean. Rest for about 20 minutes, then remove the sides of your springform pan (or just dig into it if using a regular pan).
Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar because pretty and possibly serve with honey-sweetened whip cream because it just goes.
