Lumberjack Cake Recipe
Lumberjack Cake is a hearty, old-fashioned Aussie favourite that's packed with dates and apples, and topped with a rich, caramel-like coconut crust.
Servings: 16 slices
Calories: 4369kcal
Equipment
- 19-20cm round cake tin (springform, ideally)
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 medium apples (300 grams)
- 1 cup pitted dates (180 grams)
- 1 cup boiling water (250ml)
- 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
- 125 grams butter (softened out of fridge for 20 minutes and cut into cubes)
- 1 cup caster sugar (215 grams)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups plain / all purpose flour (200 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Topping
- 60 grams butter
- ½ cup brown sugar (100 grams)
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 cup shredded coconut (70 grams)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to moderate (180 degrees celsius / 355 degrees fahrenheit, fan-forced).
- Grease round tin and line with baking paper.
Cake
- Peel and core the apples and then finely chop. Chop the dates.
- Place chopped apples and dates into a bowl and add the bicarb soda and water. Set aside.
- Place butter and sugar into a medium-sized mixing bowl and beat until creamed (it will be pale and fluffy).
- Add egg and vanilla extract and beat again until combined.
- Add the salt to the flour and then sift ⅓ of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Fold until combined.
- Add ⅓ of the chopped apple and date mixture and fold until combined.
- Continue to alternate between adding ⅓ of the flour mixture and ⅓ of the chopped apple and date mixture and folding until all combined.
- Pour mixture into prepared round cake tin.
- Bake for 1 hour.
Topping
- About 10 minutes before the 1 hour cake baking finishes, prepare the topping.
- Place all topping ingredients in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves.
- Spread topping mixture evenly over the top of the cake immediately upon taking it from the oven.
- Return the cake (with the topping) to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes (or until the topping becomes a golden colour).
- Allow to cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes before removing from the tin to continue cooling.
Notes
Serving: This cake can be served at room temperature – but is perfect served while still a little warm from the oven. Add some cream or custard if you want to add to the blissful experience.
Storing: Store the cake in the fridge for up to a week.
Freezing: Wrap well and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition: The nutrition information is an automatically generated estimate and is not guaranteed to be accurate.
Tips:
- I've used Granny Smith Apples as they are firm and tart – perfect for baking. You could also use Pink Lady, Jazz or Braeburn apple varieties.
- Lumberjack Cake is traditionally made in a square tin. Here, though, I've used a 19-20cm round springform cake tin. Why? Because using a springform tin means it's easier to remove the cake from the tin without messing up the lovely coconut topping! You could, however, use a 20cm square tin.
- Finely chop apples up into pieces about ½cm x ½cm. Chop the dates into pieces about 1cm x 1cm.
Nutrition
Calories: 4369kcal | Carbohydrates: 651g | Protein: 40g | Fat: 194g | Saturated Fat: 127g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 43g | Trans Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 571mg | Sodium: 3250mg | Potassium: 2228mg | Fiber: 29g | Sugar: 481g | Vitamin A: 5208IU | Vitamin C: 18mg | Calcium: 391mg | Iron: 7mg