Dorset apple cake
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 8–10
A classic British apple cake with a cup of tea on a cool autumn day is hard to beat. This simple recipe is full of warming spices and tangy apple, dusted with crunchy demerara sugar. Delicious!
By Ravneet Gill
Ingredients
- 150g/5½oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 75g/2½oz caster sugar
- 75g/2½oz soft light brown sugar
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp fine salt, plus a pinch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 free-range eggs
- 175g/6oz plain flour
- 35g/1¼oz wholemeal flour (or wholemeal spelt flour)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 medium Bramley apples, cored, peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 15g/½oz demerara sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5. Grease and line a 20cm/8in cake tin with baking paper.
Beat the butter, caster sugar, light brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract together using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix the flours, baking powder and a pinch of salt together in a separate bowl, then gradually mix into the butter, sugar and egg mixture using a spatula or wooden spoon. Stir well to make sure there are no pockets of flour.
Mix the apple pieces with the cornflour until well coated, then combine with the cake mixture.
Tip the cake mixture into the prepared tin and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before serving with a cup of tea or a drizzle of cream.
Recipe tips
This cake keeps really well at room temperature in an airtight container for 3–4 days.
Traditionally Dorset apple cakes were designed to use up any apples you might have a glut of. Bramley apples, as suggested in this recipe, soften very easily when cooked so they form juicy pockets of apple throughout the cake. If you don't mind the apple in your cake to have a firmer texture, feel free to swap in whatever eating apples you have available (sharper varieties are best). You'll need about 500g/1lb 2oz apples in total before peeling and coring. Take care to chop into small pieces as directed in the recipe (1cm/½in cubes).
To make this recipe gluten free, use a gluten-free baking powder and 210g/7¼oz gluten-free plain flour. The finished cake will have a more crumbly texture, but it's still delicious.
Dorset apple cake also makes a lovely dessert when served warm with custard or ice cream.
