Cake Recipe: Granny Smith Cranberry Olive Oil Cake

Here is a recipe to share with you all.

Of the many cakes that the wife got for her birthday this year, this was the only home made one and probably the tastiest too! Some of you have seen me post the photo of this cake in Instagram and have asked for the recipe, so here it is.



Mum made it for her new daughter in law's birthday. It's really easy to make and I am going to show you how to make it. Using lots of photos, I will guide you step by step. If you are a pro baker, just bear with me. For newbie bakers, I hope with these photos, you can  almost feel you are in our kitchen making it!

Most cake recipes require very precise measurement, mum has been baking cake for over 40 years and have been modifying them as it goes. This is one recipe she says that does not need precise measurement. No need to have complex machines too! Just a large mixing bowl, a sieve, a whisk, a lined baking tray and an oven.

We are having green apples for this recipe, just because it's one of the wife's favourite fruit.


Ingredients Set A
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of olive oil
3 XL eggs (if you get them from the wet markets) or 6 small eggs (the usual ones in the supermarkets)


Ingredients Set B
3 cups of granny smith (3 or 4 apples depends on the size)
150 gm of dried cranberries
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

Ingredient Set C
3 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of bi carb
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt

Preparation Steps to be done first
- Sift the ingredients in set C first.
- Prepare a 9x9 inch square tray and lined it with grease proof paper.


Baking time
- 45 mins at 175 Celsius

Follow me as I graphically show you how it's made:

Step 1: Pour into the mixing bowl, 1 cup of sugar.




Step 2: Add in the 1 cup of olive oil. You do not need to use the most expensive olive oil you have. In fact, we use the Fairprice brand of olive oil. It's just to replace butter.




Step 3: Add in the eggs. The eggs we bought from the supermarket last week was a bit too small. So mum had 6 eggs instead.  If you usually get the super XL eggs from wet markets, 3 is enough. 




Step 4: Whisk the mixture with a hand whisk! It is that simple!

We hate cleaning up. Especially containers from machines that does not really fit into our dishwasher. Keep your Kenwood or Kitchenaid.




Step 5: Add in the 3 cups of granny smith apples. Just a simple mix will do.

You might be asking what's a good size to cut for the apples? If you want to have nice, clean and pretty slices of cakes when you cut the cake when it's done, cut it apples smaller. If the apple is too big, when you cut the cake, you get 'holes'.

If it's for family and you really love the bite of apples, cut it the size you see above. It won't be as pretty when you cut the cake, but you get the nice bite!




Step 6: Add in the sifted flour. If you are making macarons or chiffon cakes, you usually add in the flour in 2 or 3 batches. For this cake, you can add it all in at one go!




Step 7: Add in the dried cranberries.




Step 8: At this point, preheat the oven. Set it at 175 Celsius. We usually set it to 10 minutes.

We sometimes bake using the Bosch Oven or the Many-in-one Panasonic steam oven.  Both works. Just your preference. The Panasonic is smarter sometimes, when it reaches 175 Celsius, it beeps!

Mum prefers traditional convection oven.




Step 9: Add in the cinnamon powder. Apples and cinnamon goes very well together!

Give it a really good stir with a spatula, not the whisk. Same like other cakes, don't fold it too hard or too long. When it's well mixed, stop.




Step 10: Pour the mixture into the cake pan! That's it!




Step 11: Admire your work! I was already salivating when I saw this! There's so much fruits in it!




Step 12: Into the oven it goes!




Step 13: Set it to bake for 45 minutes at 175 Celsius. Wait patiently!

While it's baking, you can clean up. Err... there's nothing much to clean up is there? We used so few 'equipment' to make this cake.




Step 14: The finished product! Test the cake to see if it's done.

Poke a bamboo skewer into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done! If not, give it another 5 to 10 minutes. When it's done, the cake does not stick to the sides of the pan.




Step 15: Cool the cake. I tell you, it smells so good, you can't wait to eat it!




Step 16: Serve the cake! Mum asked if she should prepare some chocolate cream to cover the cake. Everyone at home said no! We usually scrap off the cream, so we say we don't want cream.  Put a Happy Birthday decoration tag on top and candles and it's done!

Sing Happy Birthday, make a wish, blow the candle, cut the cake and EAT!

Hope you enjoy this recipe.
Let us know how you like it when you bake it.