Norfolk apple cake

I love apple cakes and am always very happy to find a new recipe. It's a very country looking cake with little chunks of apple and dried fruit. Nothing refined about it, but the taste is good. I love spices and this one has cinnamon and mixed spice.
It's made using the rubbing in method, and I found it difficult to get all the ingredients together. I didn't think I'd mixed it properly, but it came out fine. There's a lot of mixture for 1 egg!

400g apple chopped into dice
125g mixed fruit
125g brown sugar
125g butter
1 large egg
1 tspn cinnamon and 1 tspn mixed spice

Preheat oven 180C/gas4

Grease and line a 20cm springform tin.

Rub together the butter and flour till it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the egg, sugar and spices and mix together.
Then add the apple and mixed fruit.
Bake for about 35 mins till the middle feels firm when you touch it.

I didn't have any mixed fruit so used raisins. You can see that the apple stayed in little chunks; it's very moist from the apples. It's more of a dessert cake than one to have with a cuppa; we had some with creme fraiche. I like it's chunky look and spicy flavour, and it's a cake I'll make again.

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German apple cake

I love apple cakes, and this is a recipe from my lovely German dil. She makes really delicious cakes; when she married our son, she, her Mother and Grandmother made over 40 cakes to have with a glass of wine or beer after the ceremony. The variety was awe inspiring. I have to say that she's a qualified pastry chef and now works for Suffolk school dinners!

This is an unusual apple cake as it has 3 layers. It's not the prettiest of cakes, but the flavour's really good. It's not a huge cake, but it's nice eaten warm as a pudd. or cold as a cake with your afternoon cuppa.

100g butter
100g caster sugar
200g sr flour
1 large egg
pinch salt
500g cooking apples
55g sultanas
1 tspn cinnamon
55g demerara sugar

Preheat oven 190C/gas 5.
Grease and line a 20cm springform tin.

Melt butter in microwave or pan. Remove and add the sugar, flour, egg and salt. Mix to a stiff dough.
Put 2/3 of the dough in the bootom of the cake tin, pressing it to cover the base.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together and then put on top of the dough.
Put the 1/3 of the dough on top in pieces, tearing it and gently pressing it down. It won't cover the apple mixture.
Bake for about 50 mins till golden, but cover with some foil for about the last 10 mins to stop the top burning.
Cool in the tin then put on a plate and serve warm or cold.

It's not burnt! I used dark demerara sugar mixed with the cinnamon and apple.

I love the apple layer with the sultanas, sugar and cinnamon. It's a nice mixture of textures - the cake bottom, the apple layer and the almost cobbler topping.

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Apple sour cream cake

We love apple cakes, and as there were a few wrinkly apples to use up, I found this recipe in my binder; it's one I've not tried before.
Anything with cinnamon is a winner with me, and if it's easy to make, it's a double winner! The other good thing about this cake is that it freezes well [or so the recipe says].

2 large apples, peeled and cored [ I used 3 Royal Gala]
125g butter or margarine, softened
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
200g plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
1 tspn cinnamon
100g sour cream or creme fraiche - I used creme fraiche
1 tbspn apricot jam

Preheat oven 180C/gas4
Grease and line a 23cm tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together till white and fluffy, then beat in the eggs.
Add the baking powder and cinnamon to the flour and fold into the mixture, then add the vanilla and sour cream or creme fraiche. Mix together gently till smooth.
Chop 1 of the apples into chunks and add to the mixture. Slice the other one.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth. Arrange the apple slices on top.
Bake for 35-45 mins till golden.
Cool on a wire rack.
Heat the apricot jam gently then brush onto the cooled cake.

We're having some of this as a dessert tonight, then I'm going to freeze the rest as we're away for the weekend.

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Apple sour cream cake

I love apple cakes and this is one I hadn't made before. It's good as a cake and as a dessert.

125g butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
200g plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
1 tbspn cinnamon
2 cooking apples
3 tbspn sour creme
topping
1 tbspn butter
2 tbspn sugar
1/2 tspn cinnamon

Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4

Grease and line a 23cm springform tin

Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
Beat in eggs and stir in vanilla essence, flour and baking powder, tbspn cinnamon and the sour cream.
Peel and chop one apple into dice and finely slice the other.
Add the diced apple to the mixture and spoon in the tin.
Arrange the apple slices on top.

                Melt the tbspn butter amd mix with the sugar and cinnamon. Brush this over the apple slices.

                Bake for about 40 mins till golden and cool on a wire rack.

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Apple and cinnamon scone round

Yet another apple recipe!  Am making the most of the Bramleys before we leave.

This is a nice easy recipe that you can make in a few minutes, if you need a cake in a hurry. It's another one from Mum's old handwritten book.

4oz/125g sr flour and 4oz/125g sr wholemeal flour
1 tspn baking powder
2oz/60g soft brown or demerara sugar
11/2 oz/45g diced butter or margarine
1 tspn cinnamon
1 medium Bramley apple [about 10oz/300g before peeling] peeled, cored and chopped
3-4 tbspn milk
extra demerara sugar for the top

Preheat oven 200C/gas6/400F

Grease a baking sheet.
Sift the flours into a bowl and rub in the fat.
Stir in the sugar and cinnamon and then add the chopped apple. You can, if you like, grate the apple, but I prefer it in chunks.
Mix it all together then stir in enough milk to make a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured board and shape into a 7"/ about 18cm round.
Mark it into 8 and then sprinkle the top with denerara sugar.
Bake it for about 25-30 mins.

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Spicy topped apple cake

Yes, another apple cake! The apples are falling off the Bramley trees as there are so many of them, and it's been so hot.
I found this recipe in one of my Mum's old cookbooks. It was called a 'crunchy' topped cake, but it's not at all crunchy on top. It's not a spongecake base this time - more of a sweet pastry.

75g butter or margarine
175g sr flour
50g caster sugar
1 egg
75ml water
3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

topping

75g dark brown sugar
2 tspn cinnamon
25g butter of margarine

Preheat oven to 180C/gas4/350F
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Rub fat into flour till it looks like breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar and mix in the egg and water to make a soft dough.
Spread this dough into the base of the tin.

Press the apple wedges into the dough and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon. Dot with pieces of butter of margarine.

Bake for about 30 mins till firm.

It's difficult to decide of the base is cooked as the top is soft from the melted butter. I cooked it for 40 minutes and it was cooked perfectly.

It wouldn't win any awards for 'best looking cake', but it tastes really good.

We ate it with some cream, but ice cream would be delicious too.

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Apple puree cake

This is a lovely moist cake with a soft, dense texture. Make sure, if you do try it, that you grease the cake tin well, as I used my 2lb silicone loaf mould and even thought I did grease it, the cake still stuck to the bottom.

Apple puree cake

100g butter or margarine, softened

225g soft brown sugar [I used light brown muscovado sugar and it gave the cake a lovely flavour]

2 eggs, lightly beaten

225g plain flour

1 tspn ground cinnamon

½ tspn grated nutmeg

100g apple puree

1 tspn bicarb.

2 tbspn hot water



Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F

Grease a 2lb loaf tin well



Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy

Beat in eggs and stir in flour, spices and apple puree.

Mix the bicarb. with the hot water then stir it into the mixture.

Spoon into tin and bake for about 50mins. Test with skewer to see if it’s cooked.

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Apple crumble cake

When we came to France nearly 7 years ago, we brought 2 Bramley apple trees with us, as the variety isn't known here. They've been prolific and have given us apples for the freezer every year.
I'm always looking for new recipes to use them and found this one in an old exercise book that I used in a cookery evening class in the 70s.

100g soft margarine or butter
100g caster sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 eggs beaten
150g sr flour
milk if needed
350g apples, peeled, cored and sliced [and defrosted if frozen]
topping
75g hard margarine [I used soft]
100g sr flour
75g caster sugar
1 tbspn water
Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas 4
Make the cake first by creaming the fat and sugar till light and fluffy then beating in the vanilla and eggs.
Fold flour into the mixture and if necessary add a little milk to make a stiffish dropping consistency.
Grease a 21cm loose-bottomed tin and line base with parchment.
Put cake mixture into tin and smooth top, then put the apple on top in a layer.
Make topping by rubbing fat into flour and stirring in the sugar and water.
Spoon this over the apple.
Bake for about an hour - check after 45 mins as the top was golden, but the bottom wasn't cooked, so I covered the top in foil and cooked it for another 15 mins.

Serve it hot with cream or ice cream or cold as a cake.
It makes a substantial sized cake!

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Apple and blueberry cake

This is a recipe from my friend Annick.
I bought some frozen blueberries last week and made some muffins with them, but had half a bag left. What to do with them? This cake was the answer.
You can serve it warm, with creme fraiche or cream as a dessert, or cold with a cuppa.

Here's the recipe:

225g sr flour

1/2 spn salt

125g butter or margarine

175g granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 large eating apples, cored and sliced

125g blueberries

icing sugar

Preheat oven 190C/170C fan/gas5

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Put the flour in a bowl with the salt; add the butter or marg and rub it in.

Add 125g of the sugar and the eggs and mix together.

Spread half of this mixture into your tin - I found this very difficult until I used a flat spatula.

Layer the apples and blueberries on top and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar.

Spoon in the rest of the mixture.

Bake for about 45 mins [ my oven isn't very reliable and it took 40 mins]

Cool in the tin for 10 mins then put on a wire rack to cool.

Sieve some icing sugar over the top.

I have to say that this isn't the most attractive looking cake you'll ever make, but it's certainly delicious.

We ate ours with a cuppa.

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Helen's apple cake

Yet another apple cake! We still have some more Bramleys to come - a great year for them.
Helen is a friend who is an excellent cook. She made this cake during one of our visits and it's really delicious. Bob,my husband,hates bananas, but loves this cake. He doesn't know that there are any in it!!!

This amount makes 2 generous 2lb loaf cakes, but I usually halve the recipe. I'm not sure if it would freeze.

250g unsalted butter
250g dark brown sugar
500g sr flour
4 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
5 small ripe bananas
500g sultanas
4 large eggs
cinnamon and mixed spice to taste [I use a lot as I love them!}

Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F

Beat sugar and butter together till fluffy.
In another bowl beat eggs and bananas together and then add to the sugar mixture.
Add the apples and mix well.
Add the spices to the flour and then add gradually to the mixture, mixing well after each addition.
Divide between the 2 tins and bake for about an hour. In my oven it took longer than an hour. Test with a skewer to see if done and then cool on a wire rack.

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