Vanilla Bean Sponge Cake with Salted Caramel Apples

Salted Caramel. It's one of the current food trends that I hope never goes away. I love it a little bit too much. The weird thing is, when I think of regular old plain caramel I immediately think it's too rich for me, too sweet, too heavy. But when it's salted caramel, I think BLISS. Just the simple addition of some sea salt flakes and I could have it with nearly every dessert and it would be happier for it, and I will eat it straight from the jar with a spoon.

This time around it was drizzled, no, drenched on top of a simple but lovely vanilla bean sponge cake. I was making a dessert to finish off a family afternoon tea but I didn't feel like making an ordinary Victoria sponge (as much as I love them). This particular vanilla bean sponge was filled with whipped cream and creme fraiche (I had enough people ask me what the heck it was last week that I feel obligated to google it for you) and more vanilla beans. Then I cooked some apple chunks until they were tender and golden and stirred them into some salted caramel sauce and piled it all on top of the cake. There's nothing quite like a river of oozing salted caramel down the side of a cake to get you drooling.

It may not be as pretty as a cake topped with berries or icing, but I assure you it's worth it for the flavours. I didn't expect to love this cake as much as I did. Especially after tasting all the separate components all day while I was making it, followed by a very filling meal of sandwiches, cheese, vol au vents, sausage rolls and quiche. But even after all that this cake was well received, with some people even going back for seconds. The richness of the caramel was easily offset by the light sponge, tart apples and slightly sour flavour of the creme fraiche.

Of course, the important part of this dessert is getting the sponge right. I have to admit I was a little nervous since this was my first time making sponge in my new place, but I didn't need to worry. If you're not too comfortable with making sponge I suppose you can play it safe and get storebought. But there's nothing quite like a homemade sponge cake. Make sure you read up on tips for making a successful sponge. My main ones are; make sure your eggs are at room temperature, go nuts when whipping your egg mixture (easily done with a stand mixer or with a bit of elbow grease and a hand mixer) to ensure that your cake batter is as stable as possible while baking. And make sure your butter is melted but not hot when you add it to the batter at the end.

Edit: Ooh and in other news, last week I found out that I'm lucky enough to be part of the Top 5 Food & Wellbeing  Voices of 2013. Yay! It's very exciting to be chosen along side some seriously talented bloggers. As part of it I will be guest posting on Kidspot throughout the month of June, and I'll make sure to link to all my posts here so that you guys can check them out!

Vanilla Bean Sponge Cake with Salted Caramel Apples

(sponge cake from Gourmet Traveller, salted caramel sauce adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

Note: If you are new to sponge cakes make sure you click through to the Gourmet Traveller link above for extra tips. This sponge cake relies solely on the whipped eggs for leavening and it is important you follow all the steps carefully.

For the sponge cake:

40g (about 3 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled plus extra for greasing tins

120g (about 1 cup) plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

4 eggs, at room temperature

110g (about 1/2 cup) caster/superfine sugar

1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only

Preheat oven to 180°C (350° F) (you may need to adjust to 170°C (340° F) for fan-forced) . Brush an 18-20cm round cake tin with melted butter, line base and sides with baking paper, grease paper with a little extra butter and then dust lightly with flour. Triple-sift flour and set aside. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla seeds in an electric mixer until thick, pale and tripled in volume (about 7-8 minutes). Sift over flour in two batches, folding each batch in with a large metal spoon or spatula. Fold in melted butter. Carefully pour into prepared tin and bake until light golden and centre springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertip (20-25 minutes). Pull cake gently away from sides of tin with your fingers or carefully loosen with a knife. Turn onto a wire rack, remove baking paper, turn back over swiftly and cool completely. Best eaten on the day of baking, but you can store it in an airtight container overnight and assemble the rest of the cake the next day.

For the salted caramel apples:

1/2 cup sugar

40g (about 3 tbsp) butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

1/4 cup pure or thickened (heavy) cream, at room temperature

1 tsp flaky sea salted, adjusted to taste

3 baking apples (I used Granny Smiths), peeled cored and chopped into chunks

Place sugar in an even layer on the bottom of a small (preferably heavy-based) saucepan on medium heat, whisking as it begins to melt. It may start to clump, but this is fine. Continue to whisk until the sugar is all melted and then stop whisking, swirling the pan occasionally while the sugar cooks. If you have a sugar thermometer, place it in the sugar at this point and cook it until the mixture is a deep amber colour and reaches 180°C (350° F) and absolutely no higher or it will likely burn. I like to take mine off the heat as it approaches the temperature. Quickly and carefully add all the butter at once, whisking as it bubbles up, melts and combines. Keeping the pan off the heat, add the cream and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Add sea salt to taste (careful not to burn yourself!) and set aside to cool and thicken. Place chopped apples in a medium to large frying pan with a bit of melted butter and cook, tossing regularly, until apples are golden and tender. Stir apples into salted caramel sauce.

To assemble cake:

200g creme fraiche (if unavailable you can replace this with another 1/2 cup of thickened cream)

120ml (about 1/2 cup) thickened (heavy) cream

1/2 cup icing/powdered sugar, sifted

1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only

Place ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until it reaches soft peaks. Take care not to overmix. Carefully cut your sponge cake in half using a long serrated knife. Place bottom half on cake stand and spread whipped cream over the top with a spatula. Top with the other half of the cake and then carefully top with apples and caramel sauce. Make sure the sauce has cooled enough to be thicken enough not to run straight off the cake but is still pourable.