Dorset Apple Cake

Recipes for Dorset Apple Cake

These recipes complement the articles on Dorset Apple Cake in the Marshwood Vale Magazine and on my blog

My first cake 

slightly modified from Felicity Cloake’s Perfect Dorset Apple Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

Wholemeal flour (225g) (I used spelt flour)

Baking powder (2 tsp)

Pinch of salt

Mixed spice (1tsp)

Rapadura sugar (175g) (Felicity Cloake calls for light muscovado which may work better)

Butter, melted (150g)

2 large eggs, beaten

4 medium Cox apples, cored but not peeled, then diced (The apple flavour may come through better with a tart cooking apple, but I followed Felicity’s suggestion of Cox’s)

Demerara sugar to top

Flaked almonds (2 tbsp) for top

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, spice, and sugar in a bowl.
2. Stir in the butter and eggs and beat together for a minute or so until combined well.
3. Stir in the apples until well distributed, then spoon the mixture in to the tin (circular tin, 20 cm diameter, with paper liner).
4. Smooth the top and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar.
5. Bake for an hour at 160 ^oC,
6. Add the almonds and bake for a further 15-25 mins until coming away from the tin. (my cake needed more time overall so you may need to test with a skewer until it comes away clean)

My Second Cake

Modified from Amanda Persey “Favourite Dorset Recipes”

Ingredients:

Plain flour (115g)

Spelt flour (wholemeal) (115g)

Baking powder 2tsp

Butter (115g)

Rapadura sugar (115g)

Cinnamon (1tsp)

One egg, beaten

Natural yoghurt (1 tbsp) (this was an addition suggested by Hazel to make the cake more moist, it could have taken more)

Cooking apples, peeled and cored (225g roughly chopped (in the cake), 90g chunks (each chunk about one eighth of one apple) for the top))

Melted butter for brushing the top

1. Mix the flours and baking powder and rub in the butter by hand until is resembles bread crumbs.
2.  Mix in the sugar and cinnamon.
3. Add 225g of roughly chopped apple
4. Mix in the beaten egg and the natural yoghurt and stir well until mixed evenly
5. Put the mixture in a cake tin (circular tin, 20 cm diameter, with paper liner) and smooth the surface
6. Press apple chunks (90 g in total) in to the surface
7. Brush surface with melted butter
8. Bake at 170 degrees for 30-40 min until surface is firm to touch or a skewer inserted in the cake comes away clean.  The recipe calls for 30-40 min but I had to cook for longer, it will depend on your oven.

Another recipe for Dorset Apple Cake – received from Richard Coode who lives just outside Dorchester

ingredients:

8 oz self raising flour                4 oz butter

4 oz caster sugar                       1 lb. peeled and cored apples

1 egg                                        2 oz sultanas

1 pinch of mixed spice              Some lemon zest (optional/recommended)

• rub butter (in small chunks) into flour to a fine breadcrumb state
• mix sugar and spice – plus lemon zest
• cut the apples into small rough chunky bits
• add apples as you cut into the sugar/spice
• add apples, sugar and spice to the flour mixture; mix well together
• add dried fruit.
• beat egg with 1 tablespoon of milk and add to mixture.
• prepare a round 9” cake tin. (helpful to line base with greaseproof paper)
• spoon mixture in and sprinkle top with brown sugar.
• bake at 200C for 30-40 minutes.
• leave in tin for 5-10 mins before turning out.
• freezes well; can be warmed before serving as a dessert.

Richard told me that  more than 20 years ago he attended a “cooking for men” evening class locally during which the tutor Mary gave participants a range of recipes in her copperplate hand, including this simple and foolproof recipe for Dorset Apple Cake.