- Serves 10 to 12 - Ready in 2 hours (including cooling time) -
*uses up 4 medium-sized apples*
Gather together…
225g butter, very soft - grated / warmed in heating-up oven for 2 minutes.
225g brown sugar.
225g self-raising flour.
2 tsp baking powder (sieved).
¼ tsp salt.
1 tsp mixed spice.
1 tsp ground cinnamon.
100g chopped mixed nuts e.g. hazelnuts, almonds etc (or bash up whole nuts in a bag with a rolling pin).
100g sultanas.
4 medium eggs (beaten) .
1 tsp vanilla extract (the Taylor & Colledge brand is fairtrade certified / the Dr Oetker brand is alcohol free).
400g of grated apple - weighed when whole (approximately 3 average-sized eating apples or one very large large cooking apple). DO NOT prepare the apple(s) until instructed to in the recipe, or the grated flesh will brown whilst exposed to the air.
1 neatly sliced apple (sliced into about 16 slices - so cut into quarters, de-core and slice each into 4). Again, DO NOT prepare the apple until instructed to in the recipe, or the sliced flesh will brown whilst exposed to the air.
Serve with...
1 tbsp honey (set or runny honey, either will do).
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon.
Get baking...
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan) or Gas 4.
2. Slice the 225g of butter and put it in a heat-proof bowl in the oven to soften for two minutes, whilst the oven heats up - set a timer so you don't forget it is in there!
3. Butter a deep, 23cm round cake tin and line the base with baking parchment and grease again, or better still, use a re-usable cake tin liner (cut-to-size liners are available from Lakeland).
4. In a large food mixer bowl (or just mix by hand in a big bowl), mix together the 225g of very soft butter and the 225g of brown sugar, for 1 minute.
5. Sieve in the 225g of self-raising flour and sieve in the 2 tsp of baking powder (to avoid unpleasant lumps). Then add the ¼ tsp salt, the 1 tsp of mixed spice and the 1 tsp of ground cinnamon. Don't stir yet.
6. Add the 100g of chopped mixed nuts, and the 100g of sultanas. Stir slightly to coat the fruit and nut additions in flour, to help to stop them sinking to the base of the cake.
7. Add the 4 medium eggs (beaten) and the 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Stir the cake mixture thoroughly until smooth (for approximately 30 seconds).
8. In a separate (medium) bowl, coarsely grate the 400g of apple, skin-and-all (but stop grating before you get to the core, then discard the core). As you finish grating each apple, add the grated flesh immediately to the cake mixture and give a little stir - this will stop the grated apple from discolouring.
9. Give the grated apple and cake mixture a good stir for 20 seconds.
10. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top layer down gently - make sure no bits of apple are obviously sticking up out of the mixture, or the grated bits will burn.
11. Just before you put the cake in the oven, neatly slice the remaining apple (leaving the skin on, but removing the core) into approximately 16 pieces.
12. Arrange the slices of apple on the top of the cake, press them down gently but firmly, so they are stuck into the mixture and not standing proud of the surface, but are still visible.
13. Bake the cake for 1 hour 15 minutes until the cake is risen and shrinking away from the tin. Don't be tempted to overbake it.
14. Cool the baked cake in the tin for 10 mins.
15. Meanwhile heat the 1 tbsp of honey in a small pan on the hob, gently, for 2 minutes so it becomes easily pourable. Stir in the 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon and brush this glaze over the top surface of the cake. Allow the glazed cake to cool for 5 minutes more.
16. Then use a flat knife to run around the iinside edge of the tin (to loosen the cake), remove the tin and cool the cake further on a wire rack. I would leave the base-liner underneath the cake, this will make it easier to slide it off the bottom of the tin. You can't turn this cake over to remove it from the tin as the top apple slice layer is fragile.
17. This cake is delicious served still-warm or when fully cold.
18. Store the (fully cooled) cake in an airtight container at room temperature and eat up within three days.
Adapted from a combination of this Hazelnut Fruitcake Good Food recipe and the 'Apple and Cinnamon Cake' in Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and the Sewdish Apple Cake recipe from a Waitrose recipe card.