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Every year, as the days get shorter, I feel the need to make an apple cake. I find that apples are best eaten wrapped in either pastry or cake!
I love Apple Pie, Apple Crumble, Apple Cake, Apple Auffins (probably in that order too!), so you can imagine my delight at discovering that you can have cake and crumble at the same time.
This wonderful cake is packed full of your favourite apples, cinnamon and topped with a crumble topping.
It's best when it's served warm with custard (my personal favourite), icecream or cream, or you can simply eat it as it is. Eat it cold the next day and it will be a great accompaniment to your afternoon cuppa.
Before you start here are a few tips to making this cake.
The Apples. There's a lot of advice out there when it comes to which one to use. I use eating apples, although some will scoff at the idea. It's currently apple season in the UK so I would choose a Cox's apple as it's sharp but not too sharp (it's an eating apple after all), but you can use the variety you prefer.
Make the crumble ahead of time. Use room temperature butter as it's easier on your fingers when rubbing it into the flour. It's going into the fridge anyway. Store the crumble in the fridge in a ball. This is to allow the butter to firm up again. Then you can break it up into bigger clumps than you would do for a crumble. The idea is to have bigger pieces of crumble that have been allowed to go extra crispy on the top.
Peel & chop the apples. The joy of this cake is that you can have big chunks of apple, if that's what you are in the mood for, or slices of your favourite apple. If you like the peel left on, then do that - it can make a nice contrast in the cake. The easiest way to core the apples, without an apple corer, is to cut them into 4 and then cut around the core with a small knife. Watch your fingers though!
Why should I make this cake?
It's an apple lovers dream cake. Every bite is filled with chunks of cinnamon dusted apple.
It's cinnamon & brown sugar crumble is to die for! I love my crumble to be crispy and having big chunks of it on top of this cake is another level of bliss you have to experience for yourself.
Cake! This should probably be first for me, after all I am addicted to the stuff. I usually use baking margarine when I bake cakes but some of them just have to be made with butter - this is one of them. The use of light brown sugar adds a lovely caramel twist to the whole cake.
It's easy. When you read through the recipe for the first time you probably think it's a bit of a faff, but honestly, when you start it's not, it's just so easy.
Anyway, enough of all of that, let's get on with the recipe and the actual baking bit.
This recipe can be made in just 4 easy steps.
Make the Cinnamon Crumble topping. This part is simply rubbing butter into flour, sugar & cinnamon.
Prepare the apples. Peel, core and then cut the apple into the size of chunk you want. If you are leaving the peel on then just core and chop or slice. Toss the apples in cinnamon and a couple of tbsp of Demerara sugar, and leave to one side.
Make the batter. This can be done using the all-in-one method so it's super quick and easy. Either use an electric whisk or a free standing mixer.
Assemble and bake. This cake is made up of 5 layers - Cake:Apples:Cake:Apples:Crumble, baked in a deep 8" round cake tin.
Spread the base with half of the cake batter. Add half of the apple chunks or slices (try to distribute them evenly over the batter). Top with the rest of the cake batter. Add the remaining apples. Generously cover the whole thing with the crumble topping.
Bake.
Store the cake in an airtight container for upto 1 week (if you can resist it for that long!)
The most important thing to get from this recipe is to just enjoy it.