I have always preferred to bake cakes with butter, very much in the English way. Yet it is not very common to see butter in Iaia’s fridge at all and she prefers to fatten her batter with sunflower seed oil, claiming that it has a lighter flavour and therefore does not interfere with the other ingredients so much. It certainly gives cakes a lighter texture, and all of the cake recipes here are really very good, even to my butter-loving taste buds. But, if you think butter is better, by all means, substitute.

Iaia always gives me measurements in glass or yoghurt-pot fulls, which is fine as long as you use the same size glass or pot for everything to maintain the right proportions. For this recipe, I have included her words plus a translation into ml and g.

What you need:
a generous half glass (150ml) of sunflower seed oil and the same amount of milk
a glass minus a finger (160g) of sugar
a glass and ¾ (250g) plain flour
4 eggs, separated
a sachet and a half (25g) of baking powder
a bit (half a tsp) of cinnamon
one large, or two small golden delicious apples

What you do:
Pop the oven on to 180ºC and line a 27cm spring-form cake pan.  Beat your egg yolks and sugar together, then mix in the cinnamon. Add the milk and oil and beat well. Sift in the flour and baking powder, adding a little at a time and stirring until well mixed.  Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks and fold carefully into the cake batter.  Peel and quarter your apples and slice thinly so that the pieces will cook well.  Pour the batter into your tin and arrange the apple slices on top. Iaia always does this in artful circles, but I was feeling slightly abstract this evening. You could also chop little apple dice and mix them into the batter for more appley-ness.
Sprinkle a little extra sugar over the apple and cook the cake for around 45-50 minutes (NB: Iaia uses a much wider, shallower tin and cooks her cake for just 30 minutes, but I don’t have one, so it takes longer). When you notice that the top is golden and you start to smell an appley, cakey, cinnamony yumminess wafting about the place, check with a skewer to ensure it is cooked all the way through.

As this cake is better when fully cooled, leave it in the tin for a good while, then carefully un-spring the base and dig in.