RECIPE: Caramel apple cake

Caramel apple cake

Well now, this is a scrummy cake. The slight tartness of the apples marries perfectly with the sweetness of the caramel, and not only has the actual cake gone down a treat with my mum, sister and myself (obvs), the pictures have gone down even better with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (I'm @rachel_hosie by the way, just in case you fancy having a gander at some more cake photos... Hint hint.)

pre-caramel topping

Using caramel in the mixture instead of sugar as well as all the apple keeps the cake delightfully moist, but by using self-raising flour and a good amount of baking powder, it's not too stodgy. My cake also came out with a fabulous crust, and when drizzled in extra gooey caramel, the texture combo is divine.

Warm cake with vanilla ice cream. YUM

We had ours with afternoon tea, but I think it'd also make a spectacular pudding, maybe warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Oooh yeah (sorry, I'm hungry.) Full of apples, this is a somewhat healthy-ish option as far as cakes go - heck, eat half yourself and you can tick off one of your five a day!

I can't actually claim full responsibility for this recipe, as I adapted it from one of Waitrose's (the madre was doing the shopping, obvs not yours truly.) If you can, remember to take your eggs and butter out of the fridge to soften well in advance - if not, here's how to soften your butter in a matter of minutes!

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened
397g can caramel (I used Kate's Kitchen but you could also use Carnation)
2 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
300g Bramley (cooking) apples - I used 2 big ones
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp demerara sugar

cheeky bit of caramel running down there

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm round springform tin (preferably with high sides otherwise your cake may have a slight muffin top like mine!) with greaseproof paper. Peel, core and chop the apples into little chunks.

my apple chunks

2. Place the butter and 225g of the caramel into a large bowl and beat with a handheld electric whisk until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

pre-baking

3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and fold them in along with the milk before gently stirring in the apple until evenly incorporated into the batter. Spoon the cake mix into the tin, smooth the top as best as you can, sprinkle over the demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Check the cake after 30 mins, and if it looks like it's getting a bit dark on top, cover as quickly as possible with foil. When the cake is done it should be golden, springy underneath the sugary crust, and a skewer inserted into the middle should come out just about clean.

delightfully golden with a sugary crust, warm from the oven

4. Leave to cool in the tin for about ten mins before turning on to a wire rack to cool fully. When you're ready to serve the cake, transfer the rest of the caramel to a little jug and warm in the microwave for about a minute, stopping to stir it up halfway through. It should be warm and runnier. Drizzle (or blob) all over the cake, cut into huge slices and devour. Potentially with extra caramel if you're greedy like me.