LEKKER: Gifted Recipes: Tarte Tatin

When Colin and I got married, almost 4 years ago now, several of our friends and family put together a cookbook of all their favourite recipes and gave it to us. Since then we've moved several times and the cookbook, amongst others, lived in boxes. My cookbooks now live on a shelf in my kitchen and I have begun to make the recipes that were gifted to us in this special book. I flipped through the book several times trying decide which recipe to make first. In the end I chose a recipe from my late great aunt Ied.

Ied was quite open about the fact that she disliked cooking in general, my grandmother said it was because she felt it was a shame that after hours of work the food was eaten in a matter of minutes. But in the recipe she gave to us there is a picture of her beaming holding her upside down apple cake and it felt like a good place to start. I have tried to translate her instructions as direct as possible and kept the measurement s the same.

Tarte Tatin: French upside down apple cake

Ingredients

Pate sucre:

· 100 grams butter

· 100 grams sugar

· pinch salt

· 250 grams flour

· 2 eggs

Cinnamon Sugar:

· 4 tbsp sugar

· 1 tbsp cinnamon

4 apples

50 grams butter

Round cake pan (I used a cast iron skillet) 25 cm in diameter

Make the Pate Sucre. Mix the butter, sugar, salt and flour.

Mix the eggs in last and store the dough in the refrigerator. (I used cold butter and cut it into the dough, the dough was a little dry do I added some cold water till it formed a rough ball)

Make the cinnamon sugar. Mix the sugar with the cinnamon.

Preheat the oven to 220 C (430 F)

Peal the apples, slice them into quarters and remove the core. Melt the butter and pour it into the cake pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the melted butter.