Almondy Apple Dessert Cake

I'm always looking for new ways to use apples, and I found this recipe on Mary Berry's site. She calls it 'The very best Apple Dessert Cake'.
 It's a sponge cake mixture with an added tspn of almond extract, and you put half of the mixture in the bottom of a 20cm springform or loose bottomed cake tin, lined, then you put a layer of thickly sliced apples then the rest of the cake mixture. You sprinkle the top with flaked almonds and bake for about 45 mins.

You'll find the recipe here .

It's got a great almond flavour and a lovely moist sponge; I like the contrast between the cake and the apple layer, then the crunch of the almonds on top. We ate ours with some creme fraiche. I liked it cold, but my OH preferred it warm.

Toffee Apple Cake

Recently it was Bramley Apple week, so I decided to make an apple cake, and found this WI recipe amongst my mil's collection, but to be honest, for me, it doesn't really live up to its name. It needs a stronger toffee flavour, but I liked the idea of enhancing the apple flavour by using Calvados. We love apple cakes, and I have lots of recipes, but this is the first toffee apple cake I've tried.
I had a look online and there are lots of different ideas  - I liked  this one from Rosie Bakes It blog, but there seems to be a bit too much topping for me and she adds dates, just as I did for my Sticky Toffee cake, and I didn't want to use dates - I want the toffee flavour to come from something else. Another idea was to put some Carnation Caramel in the cake mixture - this recipe uses it, one from the Good to Know site.


225g self-raising flour
150g soft butter
150g soft dark brown sugar
50g  mixed nuts, chopped
1 large Bramley cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped finely
4 tbspn Apple Brandy [ I used Calvados]
2 large eggs
4 tbspn milk
½ tspn cinnamon

50g (2 oz) pecan nuts
1 tbspn demerara sugar

A 20cm springform tin, greased and base-lined

Preheat oven 180°C/Gas 4.

Beat butter and sugar till fluffy; add eggs one at a time. Then add the milk and apple brandy and beat in. Add the nuts and chopped apple and fold in. Fold in flour and cinnamon and mix well.
Spoon into the tin and smooth the top. Decorate edge and middle of  cake with pecan nuts. Then sprinkle over the demerara sugar.
Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or till firm to touch.
Leave the cake in tin for 10 mins before turning onto a wire rack.

In the original recipe the apple was grated, but I chopped it up finely, as I wasn't in a grating mood!

The cake has a good soft crumb, is a light texture, and I like the little bites of apple and the background flavour of the Calvados, but as I said, it could do with something to give it more toffee flavour. There is a hint from the topping and from using the dark brown sugar, but I'm going to see if I can make my perfect toffee apple cake. Watch this space!

I think the cake would make a good dessert if you served it with a toffee sauce.