A few posts back, I mentioned that I would be baking an apple cake; this would provide morning tea for Maggie at work, including some pieces for her immediate colleagues, and for me to snack on in the days leading up to our departure for Paris.

There are three cakes in our repertoire which feature apple.  One is the dessert-style apple torte which was part of the dinner at which we celebrated my 60th birthday.  Another is a lunch-box cake full of apple, walnuts and dried apricots, with olive oil replacing butter; the recipe is provided in an old post “A delicious apple cake”.

Here is recipe for the third cake, similar in style to a tea-cake.  We made it on Sunday afternoon – very moreish!

Ingredients

3 medium-sized cooking apples (Golden Delicious preferred when in season)
2 tbsp brandy
1 tsp caster sugar
¼-½ cup dried fruit, roughly chopped, eg sultanas, currants, raisins (optional)
140g butter
120g raw sugar
3 eggs
160g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon/mixed spice/ginger (vary according to taste)
50g almond flakes, lightly toasted

Method

1. Core, peel and chop apple (approx 1-2cm cubes), mix with caster sugar, dried fruit and brandy and steep for 30 minutes, stirring two or three times.
2. Grease a 21-28cm round springform cake tin and line base with baking paper.
3. Melt butter over low heat and allow to cool partly. Preheat oven to 170C.
4. Beat eggs and raw sugar in a large bowl until thick (5 minutes on medium speed).
5. Mix flour, baking powder and spices and fold into mixture.
6. Drizzle in melted butter then fold it in.
7. Use a spoon to fold in the almond flakes, then the apple mix, including any juice.
8. Spoon into tin and bake for about 35 minutes or until cake is golden brown and tests clean.