Today we had a bake day at home. I'm getting all prepared for the girls heading back to school tomorrow {sob}. I don't like when the holidays end. We've also had a very slow week with sick people everywhere in the house, so it was nice to actually get something accomplished.
So far I've made a few different cakes from different recipes, but this one was a bit of a made up one, part of the recipe was from an old one I've had in the cupboard, and because we've got apples galore, I'd thought I'd make good use of them. I've already stewed a lot of them, but there's more to be done. I think they'll be made into apple sauce to go into storage for Winter. This recipe calls for roughly 2-3 cups of stewed apples. To stew my apples, I peel, core & chop apples into a saucepan, put a dash of water into the pan and cook over a low heat until the apples are soft. If you want you can add a little sugar, but I find that the apples themselves are usually sweet enough.
I posted this photo on instagram, and I've had a few asking for the recipe, so here it is.
You'll need the following:
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of caster sugar
1 & 1/2 cups of plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp mixed spice
2-3 cups of stewed apples
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a round tin with butter & line with baking paper. Using electric beaters, beat the butter in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until pale and creamy. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice together over the butter mixture. Use a large metal spoon to gently fold until just combined. Add in the apples. Fold until just combined - the mixture should be crumble-like. Spoon into prepared tin and smooth the top with your spoon. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Set cake aside for 5 minutes then turn onto wire rack to cool. Keeps for 3 days in an airtight container.
This cake is delicious served warm or cold - but I think fresh out of the oven is best. You could also add some sultanas to this cake if you wanted to - perhaps 1/2 to 1 cup.
Enjoy x