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Spiced apple loaf cake

Equipment

  • Shipton Mill panibois wood form and one paper insert – or a prepped/lined 15cm round cake tin
  • Knife (and apple corer if you have one)
  • Large bowl
  • Wooden spoon and balloon whisk – or alternatively you can use a hand electric whisk or stand mixer
  • Small bowl with water and a drizzle of lemon juice (just to keep the apples from discolouring only)

Ingredients

  • Eggs, large – two
  • Plain flour – 180g (I used the soft cake and pastry organic white)
  • Baking powder – 1 3/4 tsp
  • Golden caster sugar – 170g
  • Unsalted butter – 170g (or 50:50 butter and margarine, but never just all margarine!)
  • Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp
  • Ground allspice – 1/2 tsp
  • Calvados or cider – 1 tablespoon
  • Squeeze of maple syrup (about 2 tspns)
  • Small tart apples, 2 – 3 – I used Cox, but any equivalent would do. James Grieve variety would be ideal if you could get hold of them

For the topping:

  • Demerara sugar – about 2 tablespoons
  • Flaked almonds – a “handful” (that’s about 50g)

Method

  • Put the oven on to 180 C fan / 190 conventional
  • Core the apples (whether you peel them is up to your preference). Slice half of one apple for the top
  • Cut up the rest of the apples into medium diced cubes
  • Pop all the apples into the lemon water to stop them going a nasty brown/oxidising until needed
  • Make sure the butter is at room temperature and easy to beat, but not at all runny (this would alter the cake and cause it to fail as a bake)
  • Weigh out the butter and the sugar in the same bowl and beat together until incorporated and smooth
  • Dry the apple
  • Add in the spices, half the butter and one egg and beat
  • When that’s mixed nicely, add in the rest of the flour, the last egg and the calvados or cider and the diced apple (reserve the slices for the top)
  • Tip this mix into the panibois paper or your prepped cake tin and smooth over
  • Arrange the sliced apple on the top of the cake mix, then sprinkle over the demerara and then the sliced almonds
  • Bake for 40 mins in the middle of the oven, but I test the cake with a skewer after 35
  • Can be served warm as a dessert with toffee sauce or ice cream (Mmmm!), as well as leaving to cool and slicing up as a delicious cake