The perfect excuse to open a bottle of cider, this recipe is adapted from the traditional Welsh apple cider cake. The cake can be served as a dessert with Crème Anglaise.
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 200 g sultanas
- 200 g Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cubed
- 200 ml dry cider
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 5 ml baking powder
- 5 ml ground cinnamon
- 120 g softened butter
- 120 g Demerara sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 45 ml milk
- 45 ml dry cider, reserved from simmering the sultanas
- icing sugar, for dusting
Streusel Topping
- 40 g softened butter
- 75 g self-raising flour
- 50 g Demerara sugar
- 50 g slivered almonds
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease and line a 20 cm square or hexagon cake pan. To make the Cake
- Place the sultanas, apple cubes and cider into a medium-sized saucepan over low heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. At the end of the cooking time the sultanas should be plump and have absorbed most of the cider (reserve the left-over cider for later use, set aside and allow to cool until luke-warm).
- Sift together the dry ingredients, add the butter, sugar, eggs and milk and beat with an electric mixer until thick and fluffy. Fold in the sultana and apple mixture. If the batter is a bit dry add 45 ml of the retained cider. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. To make the Streusel Topping
- Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Sprinkle the topping over the cake batter and scatter over the slivered almonds.
- Bake for 45–50 minutes or until a metal skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan. Only remove the cake from the pan when ready to serve, then dust with icing sugar.
