Spiced Apple Traybake Cake

5 from 7 votes

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.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British, Worldwide

Servings:

Calories: 235kcal

Author: Jane Saunders

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

Metric - US Customary

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
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
Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices into a bowl
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
Add the flour mix 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 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 in the tin
Once cool, 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