Apple and Walnut Cake

This is a really great cake for a Coffee Morning if you need something to take and don’t want to assemble or ice a cake. This is a Mary Berry recipe which I have changed only very slightly. It is a walnut and sultana cake with a layer of cinnamon spiced apple through the middle. It’s topped with crunchy walnuts and brown sugar and even gives the impression of being on the healthier end of the cake scale: always a bonus. I made this for a school coffee morning and it seemed to be a hit.

Recipe

Ingredients

225g butter

225g soft brown sugar

3 eggs

225g SR flour

100g walnuts, chopped

100g sultanas

400g cooking apples, peeled, cored and grated

1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the topping:

A couple of handfuls of chopped walnuts

A tablespoon or so of soft brown sugar

Method

Set the oven to 170ºC and grease and line the base of a deep sided, loose-based 9″ round cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.

Fold in the flour. Add the walnuts and sultanas and mix to combine.

Mix in the walnuts and sultanas

Mix the cinnamon into the grated apple.

Spread half of the cake mixture over the base of the prepared cake tin.

Half the cake mixture

Carefully spread the grated apple over the cake mixture:

Layer with the grated apple

Then add the remaining cake mixture and spread out evenly, taking care not to pull up the apple.

Sprinkle chopped walnuts and brown sugar over the top:

Ready to bake

Bake for around 1¼ to 1½ hours, until the cake is well risen and brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out dry.

Apple and Walnut cake

Allow to cool in the tin for a while before removing and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

If you want a deeper cake you could always use an 8″ cake tin: just adjust the baking time accordingly.

Categories: Baking, Cakes, Fruit, Recipes

Tags: apples, baking, cake, cinnamon, coffee morning, dried fruit, fruit, Mary Berry, raisins, sultanas, walnuts