Laura Madeleine

It’s been a bumper year for apples, thanks to early rain and lots of sun. So here’s a SUPER EASY, dump-it-all-in-together-in-a-bowl rustic apple cake, to use up a few. It also involves cider – why wouldn’t it? – but you can easily replace that with liqueur, apple juice or even just milk.

For the cake:

• 100g salted butter
• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g golden caster sugar
• 50g roughly chopped nuts (I used hazelnuts)
• 1 cooking apple, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 50ml cider
• 1 large free-range egg, beaten
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm cake or pudding dish.
2. Soften the butter until almost melted (5 second blasts in the microwave works well).
3. Dump all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir together well.
4. Spoon into the tin and smooth over.
5. Bake for around 30 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. 
6. Drink the rest of the cider.
7. Cool for a few minutes in the tin, before turning out onto a wire rack. 
8. Serve warm with clotted cream OR with a hunk of cheddar cheese.

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