dorset apple cake

dorset apple cake

• 13 May 2024

I've just returned to Sydney from a few weeks in Brisbane and Autumn clearly arrived while I was away. With the change of season, it's time to start baking with autumn and winter fruit. I have any number of apple cake recipes to share with you and the first one is my take on a Dorset Apple cake.

A Dorset apple cake is a classic English recipe which doesn't seem to have originated in Dorset. Whatever it's origin, it's a butter cake chock full of apples and I decided to top the cake with even more apples. Dorset Apple Cake can be served warm with cream as a pudding or can be served cold as cake.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from here, which makes a 17cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a larger cake, refer to the original recipe.

Dorset Apple Cake - makes a 17cm cake
Ingredients
112g room temperature unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
250g green apples
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
112g caster sugar, plus extra for dredging
2 large eggs
115g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

15g almond meal
1 tbs demerara or raw sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and flour a deep 17cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Peel, core and slice 1/2 an apple thinly. Sprinkle the apple slices with lemon juice to prevent them from browning and set to one side. Cut the remaining apple into 1 cm pieces, and toss with the remaining lemon juice.

In a stand mixer, cream the butter, caster sugar and lemon rind until pale and fluffy. As this is small cake, you could also use an electric hand beater for this step. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, adding a little flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into the bowl and fold in with the almond meal. Drain the apple pieces well, then stir into the mixture. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin, lightly level the top and top with the apple slices. Sprinkle the apple slices with the raw sugar then place the tin on the centre rack of the preheated oven.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen, brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the cake starts to look a little too brown, cover with a sheet of baking paper after about 45 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate. Dredge heavily with the extra caster sugar then cut the cake into generous wedges and serve warm with a spoonful of double cream.

I shared the cake with my neighbours and it went down a treat. I mean, who doesn't like apple pudding with cream?

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen. 

Bye for now, 

Jillian