Ingredients
- 2½ cups caster sugar
- 2 Tbsp glucose syrup
- ½ cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
- 8 Granny Smith apples
- 2 Tbsp cinnamon sugar
- 1 cup Madeira cake crumbs
- finely grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 600g double cream
- edible flowers, candied lemon slices and lemon verbena leaves, to garnish
Instructions
1 Preheat oven to 100°C. Combine 1½ cups sugar and glucose in a medium saucepan and set over a moderate heat, then cook for 10 minutes, until a deep-brown caramel forms. Pour half over the hazelnuts and set aside to cool, then pour the remainder into the bottom of a lined 22cm cake tin.
2 Peel and core the apples, then slice very finely on a mandolin. Arrange a layer of apples over the caramel, then scatter with 1 tsp sugar. Repeat with the remaining apples, and ½ cup caster sugar, alternating every third layer with cinnamon sugar.
3 Arrange aluminium foil over the cake and pierce several times. Bake for 3 hours, then reduce heat to 80°C and bake for a further 5 hours. Chop the hazelnut praline, then mix with Madeira crumbs.
4 Put the zest, juice and remaining sugar in a medium saucepan and simmer for 20minutes, until reduced by three-quarters. Add the cream, simmer for 5 minutes, then pass through a fine sieve and chill until firm.
5 Unmould the cake, invert onto a plate, then dress with scoops of lemon posset, hazelnut crumbs, edible flowers, candied lemon slices and lemon verbena leaves.