Apple cakes come in many forms. Some are pudding-like and need to be eaten warm with lots of custard. Others have a toffee-apple vibe, pairing the fruit with caramel and brown sugar for a warming sweetness, while others still are more apple than cake. Today’s recipe is what I call a good three o’clock cake: just sweet enough to feel like a pick-me-up, with my ideal cake-to-apple ratio. It’s lightly spiced with nutmeg, and the wholemeal spelt flour gives it a nutty, autumnal feel.
Apple, spelt and almond cake
Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr 10 min
Serves 8-10
For the apple sauce
4 eating apples: three peeled, cored and roughly chopped into 1-2cm chunks; , the fourth left whole
Juice of ½ lemon
For the cake
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
220g wholemeal spelt flour
50g ground almonds
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1½ tsp baking powder
Salt
A handful of flaked almonds
1 tbsp demerara sugar
Icing sugar, to serve
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, and grease and line a 23cm cake tin with baking paper.
To make the apple sauce, put the two chopped apples and the lemon juice in a pan and cook gently for 10-15 minutes, until soft. Mash with a fork (it doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth) and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar until very pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in the apple sauce.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, almonds, nutmeg, baking powder and a pinch of salt, then mix into the butter and apple mixture until smooth. Fold the remaining chopped apple into the batter, then pour into the prepared tin and level out the top.
Cut the remaining whole apple in half, then core and slice it thinly, leaving the skin on. Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter, overlapping them a little. Sprinkle the flaked almonds and demerara sugar over the top, then bake for 55-60 minutes, or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool completely, then dust with icing sugar, slice and serve.
