My mother would always make a cake with apples from our garden. It would usually be a tray bake — large enough to feed the whole family and any visitors. I’ve made this cake with her recipe, but using a round tin and adding honey.
Serves 8
Ingredients
For the apples:
4-5 medium sized English apples. I used Granny Smiths
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp runny honey
For the cake batter:
100g caster sugar
125ml runny honey
3 large free-range eggs
200ml vegetable oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
240g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Small knob of butter to grease the tin
Icing sugar to dust
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 23cm spring-form tin.
Peel, core and slice the apples thinly. Put them in a pan with the cinnamon, brown sugar and honey and cook very gently for around five minutes. Leave them to cool.
Beat the caster sugar, honey, eggs, vegetable oil, cinnamon and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric whisk for around three minutes until pale.
Sift over the flour and baking powder and gently fold in with a metal spoon.
Pour two thirds of the cake batter into the prepared tin. Using a slotted spoon, pour over the apples and discard any juice. Then cover the apples with the rest of the cake batter.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake. Keep an eye on it and if it starts to look too golden, place a piece of foil over the top.
Cool before serving and dust with icing sugar. The cake will keep for up to five days in a tin.
