Apple Cake

Mr S was wondering if he was going to get cake this week, and just when I was doing something completely different, the idea of apple cake came into my mind.  I searched for a recipe, weighing up in my mind which I would use, when I remembered a recipe that I wrote down years ago.  I looked through my well worn book, and found the recipe dated 1993! 

I adapted it a little as I was using desert apples, and felt there was too much sugar.  As I was using a larger 23 cm spring cake tin, I got into a little bit of a dilemma after putting in the sliced apples and felt I did not have enough mixture, so mixed up a further 1 eggs worth to cover the fruit properly.  I really like this size of cake as it gives more and better sized slices.  This is a really easy cake to make.  Since a couple of friends who received slices have left messages on the answer machine saying how much they enjoyed it, I am posting the recipe for them to have a try....

1 lb or so prepared eating apples
1 lb self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
10 oz caster sugar
5 eggs
1.5 tsp almond essence
10 oz (goats butter) or ordinary butter melted
Flaked almonds
Caster Sugar

I decided to leave on the peel on the apples, but sliced the apples neatly.  To prevent them browning, some lemon juice was squeezed over them

Sift the flour, baking powder into a large bowl, and then add the sugar.

Melt the butter gently.

Whisk the eggs to blend, together with the almond essence.

Add the eggs and butter to the flour and sugar, and mix.

Cover the bottom of the cake tin with half the mixture.  Layer the apples.

 

Then top with the remainder of the cake mixture, and sprinkle on a liberal layer of flaked almonds.

Bake at Gas Mark 4 for about 1.5 Hours.  Remove from oven, after about 10 minutes, remove from tin, and allow to cool slowly on a cake rack.  When cold, dust with icing sugar.  Three days later the cake is still fresh and there are two slices left for Sunday too!