Dorset Apple Cake

I came across this recipe as I had a load of apples that were so pappy, noone in the world would want to eat them. I didn't want to puree them or make an apple sauce so searched through my fellow blogger's recipes for apple cake and came across this little treasure. I added more ground almonds and less sugar than the original recipe, but that's only because my apples were Pink Lady's so already quite sweet. Definitely serve this warm with a dollop of clotted cream!

Dorset Apple Cake
Ingredients
225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
450g bramley apples
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
200g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
3 large free--range eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
1 tbsp demerara sugar

Clotted cream to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease a deep 23-24cm-springform-cake tin and line with baking paper. Peel, core and cut the apples into 1cm pieces, and toss with the lemon juice.

Using an electric hand whisk, cream together the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, adding a little flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

Sift the remaining flour and the baking powder into the bowl and gently fold into the butter mixture with the ground almonds. Stir in the apple pieces.

Spoon the cake mix into the prepared cake tin, level the top and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen, brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the cake starts to look a little too brown, cover with a sheet of baking paper after about 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate. Dredge heavily with the extra caster sugar. Cut the cake into generous wedges and serve warm with a spoonful of clotted cream.