Apple Cake.... mmmmm....

We are (happily) over run with apples in the garden - the two trees we have are straining with fruit..... any apple recipe's send 'em over please! So to utilise his beloved garden produce Rupert chose an apple cake for his birthday last week - I wouldn't naturally marry apples and cake but the result was yum - a classic sponge, fruity apple chunks and toasted almonds. It really was rustled up in the shake of a lambs tale and if you have any apples in the house you probably have all the other ingredients in he cupboard so bonus, no shopping required! Its a Mary Berry recipe - who doesn't love MB?!

* warning - I not only used dessert apples with the cooking apples but halved the cooking time and mine was still slightly over cooked. I don't know whether this was my wrong prep (?!) but stick a knife in the centre of the cake after 1/2 hour - if its clean when removed it's cooked and if not keep going........ (crikey its a brave women to mess with a M Berry recipe - I'm afraid.....)

• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 225g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 150g butter, melted
• 250g cooking apples, peeled and cored
• 25g flaked almonds

METHOD

-Preheat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 

-Lightly grease a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin

-Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract and melted butter into a bowl. Mix well until blended, then beat for a minute.

-Spread half this mixture in the prepared tin. 

-Thickly slice the apples and lay on top of the mixture in the tin, piling mostly towards the centre. Using 2 dessert spoons, roughly spoon the remaining mixture over the apples. This is an awkward thing to do, but just make sure that the mixture covers the centre well as it will spread out in the oven.

-Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

-Bake in the preheated oven for 1¼-1½ hours until golden and coming away from the sides of the tin.