Apple Traybake Cake
This apple traybake cake is sweetly spiced and topped with crunchy demerara sugar. It can be in the oven in 20 minutes, feeds a crowd and keeps for days. Leftovers even go well with custard.
Servings: 15
Calories: 235kcal
Equipment
- 1 baking tin approx 20cm x 30cm with a depth of at least 4 cm
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon Ground allspice
- 200 g/ 7 oz Butter softened
- 200 g/ 7 oz Light brown sugar
- 3 Eggs large, free-range
- 200 g/ 7 oz Plain (all purpose) flour
- 1½ teaspoon Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 3 tablespoon Soured cream
- 2 Apples eating apples - not cooking apples
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 2½ tablespoon Demerara sugar
Instructions
- Begin by preheating the oven to 180C/ 250F/ GM4 and grease & line a 20cmx30cm baking tin.
- Next mix the spices together in a bowl.
- Put the demerara sugar into a small bowl, add 1 teaspoon of the mixed spice and stir.
- Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the remaining spices into a bowl.
- Prepare the apples by cutting each one into eight wedges. Remove the core, then slice each wedge into chunks approximately ¼cm thick. Put into a bowl and toss with the lemon juice to prevent browning.
- Using electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. If the batter splits, mix in a spoonful of flour to help bind the ingredients back together.
- Mix in the soured cream.
- Sieve the flour mix into the batter and beat, on medium speed, until combined and the batter is smooth. Take care not to overbeat the mixture, as this will lead to a tough sponge.
- Spoon the batter into the baking tin and use a blunt knife to spread it out evenly.
- Drain the apple from the lemon juice and scatter over the top of the batter.
- Reserve 1½ teaspoon of the demerara sugar and sprinkle the rest evenly over the cake.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for around 30 minutes until the cake is golden, well risen and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
- Once baked, remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining sugar over the top. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
- Carefully take out of the tin and remove the baking paper. Cut into 15 pieces using a serrated knife and sharp, clean scissors to cut through any awkward pieces of apple.
- Wrap in foil and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days
Notes
Expert Tips
- The more precise you are when it comes to lining your tin with parchment, the neater your cake will turn out
- There is no need to remove the skin from the apples. In fact, leaving it on is preferable as it adds a great burst of occasional colour to the top of the cake
- Don’t be tempted to slice apple rings onto the top of the cake. I did this once and found they are hard to eat as they tend to slide off during the first bite of the cake. Chunks are far better.
- Use a serrated knife to cut through the cake carefully
- If the apple proves tricky to cut through after baking, use some clean scissors to carefully snip through the tricky bits to ease the cutting of the cake (just take care not to cut into the sponge itself)
- Do not use cooking apples in the recipe - they loose too much liquid as they cook and will lead to a soggy sponge
Ingredients Notes
- Use pumpkin spice or chai spice in place of my list of spice ingredients
- Flavourless Greek yoghurt works just as well as soured cream
- You can chop an extra apple and mix it directly into the batter before baking for even more apple flavour.
Nutrition
Calories: 235kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 174mg | Potassium: 127mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 409IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1mg