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1
Preliminaries: Line the poundcake tin with glassine paper.
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If the pan has a nonstick finish or is made of silicone, grease it with vegetable oil.
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Preliminaries: Have the eggs and butter at room temperature.
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4
Sift the cake flour and almond flour together twice from a height to incorporate lots of air into them, even if it seems like a lot of work.
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Make the caramelized apples and leave to cool.
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See- make sure to cook off all the excess moisture that comes out of the apples.
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Put the room temperature butter in a bowl and mix until it's glossy like mayonnaise.
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If the butter is at room temperature it will reach the mayonnaise-like stage right away.
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Add all the granulated sugar to the creamed butter at once.
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Beat with a handheld mixer until it's white and fluffy, about 10 minutes.
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After 10 minutes of beating, it will seem like the butter has increased in volume.
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Break an egg into a separate bowl and beat it very well before adding to the butter-sugar mixture.
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Use a handheld mixer for this again.
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Add the 2nd egg in the same way.
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If you add 2 eggs at once the batter may split.
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Cold eggs may make the batter split too.
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Add the caramelized apples and the sifted flours all at once.
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Mix by scooping up the batter from the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
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Turn the bowl counter-clockwise while scooping up the batter clockwise with a rubber spatula from the bottom of the bowl to mix.
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The batter in this photo is not mixed enough yet.
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Don't overmix the batter, but do mix it properly until it's glossy!
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When it's no longer floury and has turned shiny, stop mixing.
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Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
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To prevent the apples from sinking to the bottom, don't do the usual air-elimination step of dropping the pan from a height onto your work surface.
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Add some crushed walnuts, sliced almonds etc.
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to taste (optional).
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Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated 180C oven, then lower the heat to 170C and cover with aluminium foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
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While the cake is baking, make the syrup.
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Put the sugar and water in a small pan and mix.
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Bring to a boil, let cool and add the rum.
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When the cake is baked and has cooled enough that you can touch the pan, brush the surface evenly with the syrup.
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You don't have to use up all the syrup.
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After cooling the cake for a while, wrap it up in foil and rest in the refrigerator for a day.
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The cake can fall apart easily right down the middle, so handle it gently.
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The butter in the cake doesn't taste good unless it's chilled and hardened, so wait a day.
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When the cake is just out of the refrigerator it's hard and firm, so leave it at room temperature for a while before eating.
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It will be silky and moist.
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38
Apples and nuts go so well together.
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I like to add lots of walnuts personally.
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40
Here I added caramelized bananas instead of apples to make a caramelized banana poundcake.
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41
I topped it with chocolate chips.
