Not an apple pie, not an apple tart… just a simple, old fashioned apple cake.
Delicious.
In my old and tattered cookery book there’s the copy of an email that my mother sent me on Nov 18, 2000. Seeing the delivery address makes me feel funny… a month later I would say goodbye to my colleague to go to maternity leave for the first time… and I never returned. Seventeen years later the little boy I was carrying is 6’2” and has just started his penultimate year at school. Scary.
Back to the cake, here’s the list of ingredients. You can use a mixer, but I just mix all the ingredients by hand, it really doesn’t take long.
2 large eggs
200gr caster sugar
200gr self raising flower
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp butter (melted)
1 pinch of salt
(you can also add the rind of one lemon.. if you like)
1kg of cooking apples (weighted when whole)
Milk
Mix all the ingredients (it helps if you mix the eggs and the sugar first and add the rest a little at a time later) and then add milk to make it into a sauce like consistency…’ but not too runny’. (These are exactly the ‘helpful’ words my mother used… you don’t want it to be liquid, but equally you need the stuff to slide off your spoon easily)
At this point you add your apples cut into thin slices or small pieces (the thinner you slice them the softer they get when cooked. This time I did them in chunks because I wanted to feel the apple pieces. It’s totally your preference…
Bake at 180C till the top is golden (30min ish… keep an eye on it, ‘when the top is looks cooked is cooked’ (another of my mother’s gems)
This is what it looks before it goes into the oven
ta daaaaahhh…. and after!
It’s soft and moist with a sugary crunchy, sticky top… which is why soon after this picture was taken, this happened.
Sigh…
Mr M likes it warm with vanilla ice-cream. I like it cold ,the day after for breakfast.
while you're ahead... 