As Margie’s Apple, Cinnamon & Cider cake was much admired (and eaten) at the AGM in November, here is the recipe – freely adapted from one of Rick Stein’s …………..

Ingredients

Apple Filling

• 3 large crisp eating apples: Most varieties will work, but do not use cooking apples – they go mushy. (Braeburn’s are good)
• 3 tbsps of cider : Choose a bottle with a good strong appley flavour, of a type you like, then you can drink the leftovers while your cake bakes
• ½ tsp of ground cinnamon
• 40g caster sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract : I have used a dribble of vanilla bean paste, and it works too
• 3 tbsps of double cream

Cake

• 175g butter : Or you can use baking fat because it creams easily
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 150g self-raising flour
• 50g ground almonds

Method

• Peel, core & quarter the apples and cut them into thin slices. It is important to use thin slices because thick ones are too heavy for the cake.
• Soak the apple slices in the cider, cream, sugar, vanilla, & cinnamon mix. This mixture tastes lovely, but try not to eat too much because you need the liquid later.
• Make the sponge by creaming the butter and sugar together. The paler and fluffier the creamy mixture gets, the better the sponge will be.
• Next, beat the eggs in, a bit at a time, using a spoonful of flour to stop the whole lot curdling. Then, fold in the last of the flour and the ground almonds.
• The cake mixture will be quite stodgy, so loosen it up with the liquid strained off from the apple slices. The mixture needs to be ‘a soft dropping consistency’- which is what they used to say in school cookery lessons. If it is still too stodgy add a drop of cider (if you have not already drunk it)
• Put half your mixture into a greased (or lined) tin, then add a layer of half of the apple slices. Add the rest of the mixture into the tin and top it off the with rest of the apple slices.
• Bake it all at 190C for about 50 minutes. If it is browning too fast, and the middle of the cake is still uncooked (test it with a skewer), cover it up with foil and lower the temperature a bit

A word about cake tins

• This mixture makes a big cake, so you need a big tin.
• A round 23cm (9”) cake tin will work to give a big cake that will cut easily into 8 slices, but the cake will be only about 6-7cm high.
• A square 20cm (8”) cake tin will make a slightly deeper (8cm) cake, which cuts up easily into square pieces