I’ve wanted to try this cake from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible for a while and since I had some spare apples I thought I’d give it a go today. Although my husband is convinced I have every possible size of cake tin I don’t have a 23 cm (9in) round cake tin so I used a square 21cm (8in) cake tin instead. It worked for size but didn’t look as good turned out. However it sliced up into rectangles very nicely. I used a mix of half cooking apples half eating apples which was the equivalent of 1 smallish cooking apple and two eating apples. I also used demerara and a sprinkle of extra cinnamon on top before baking.
Although the walnuts provide a lovely crunch to offset the moistness of the apple I like to try the cake without walnuts next time to see if it works then it’s an option for those with nut allergies.
The cake was delicious, reminiscent of the apple cakes you get in Germanic coffee shops. Moist layer of apple. It would work very well served warm as a dessert with either a small amount of a good quality vanilla ice cream or a little cream.
Ingredients
- 225 g soft butter
- 225 g light muscovado or light brown sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 100 g walnut pieces, chopped
- 100 g sultanas
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 400 g cooking apples, peeled, cored and grated
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- light muscovado sugar for sprinkling
- extra chopped walnuts for sprinkling (optional)
- icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease and base line a 9 inch (23 cm) deep round cake tin with greased greaseproof paper.
- Measure the margarine, sugar, eggs, chopped walnuts, sultanas, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat well for about 2 minutes until thoroughly blended.
- Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin then spread the grated apple and ground cinnamon in an even layer on top. (I fancied a nice layer of apple so I thinly sliced the apple instead of grating it, but its down to personal preference)
- Spread the remaining cake mixture on top, level the surface then sprinkle generously with light muscovado sugar and walnuts.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours or until the cake is well risen and golden brown (mine was cooked after 1 hour).
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Dust with icing sugar to serve.
100 Cook Books 