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Bramley Apple Week

The Most Requested Dairy Diary Apple Recipe

Ever since childhood, when summer seemed sunnier, the grass seemed greener and those apples plucked from the boughs of my Grandad’s tree tasted like the most delicious fruit in the world, I’ve loved apples.

Needless to say, I don’t need much encouragement to eat or cook with them. And as it’s Bramley Apple Week this week I am using it as an excuse to bake a recipe that’s been requested on numerous occasions by customers who have lost the original.

Printed decades ago in a very eighties Dairy Diary, the original photograph of this apple cake doesn’t really make you want to dash in the kitchen and don your apron. However, after so many requests, it must be a good ‘un, so I’m going to give it a go.

Recipe: Spiced Apple Cake

Serves 12
Suitable for freezing
Suitable for vegetarians

Self-raising flour 350g (12oz)
Mixed spice 2 tsp
Butter 175g (6oz)
Soft brown sugar 175g (6oz)
Raisins 225g (8oz)
Egg 1, beaten
Milk 200ml (7fl oz)
Bramley apples 2, peeled and sliced
Demerara sugar 25g (1oz)
Clear honey to glaze

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1 Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Lightly grease and line a 20.5cm (8in) diameter deep cake tin.

2 Sift the flour and spice into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the soft brown sugar and raisins, than add the beaten egg and milk and mix to a soft consistency.

3 Spoon half the mixture into the tin, cover with half the apples and then top with the remaining mixture. Decorate with the rest of the apple slices and sprinkle with demerara.

4 Bake for 1¾ hours (cover with foil if the apples are browning too much) until browned and firm to touch.

5 Cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove lining paper and glaze with warmed honey.

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