Torta Di Mela - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 kg granny smith apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (approx. 6)
1 lemon, rind finely grated, juiced
120 g unsalted butter
50 g walnuts, roasted and finely ground
3 eggs
165 g muscovado sugar (3/4 cup)
110 g caster sugar (raw if possible, 1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
100 ml milk
150 g plain flour (1 cup)
2 teaspoons baking powder
200 g dried figs, finely chopped
200 g pine nuts, roasted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
180 g honey (1/2 cup)
1 lemon, juiced (strained)

Preparation

Combine apples, lemon juice and rind in a bowl, toss to coat and set aside.
Grease a 24 cm springform cake pan with 1 tbsp of butter and dust with ground walnuts.
Whisk eggs, 1/2 cup muscovado sugar, caster sugar & vanilla essence until pale and creamy. Melt remaining butter and add to egg mixture with milk, flour and baking powder, then stir to combine.
Pour 1/3 of the mixture into prepared cake pan, arrange 1/3 of apples on top, scatter with half the figs and pine nuts. Repeat, finishing with apples.
Combine cinnamon and remaining muscovado and icing sugars, scatter over cake.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour 20 minutes, cool in pan for 20 minutes.
Towards the end of the cake's baking time, prepare the lemon syrup by heating the honey in a pan over medium heat and simmering for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir through lemon juice.
Turn cake onto a platter, drizzle with warmed syrup.
Serve with fresh cream if desired.