Grandma's Apple Cake

Grandma's Apple Cake

• 6 Sept 2010

I visited my friend Jenny a few weeks ago, mother to Miss B. and her brother Ruin. Whenever I visit I bring dessert but, and it's a big but, Ruin is a fussy eater and won't eat most of my baking. He has eaten my pavlova, little apple cakes and white chocolate cupcakes with raspberry icing and that's all from a very long list.



Now I know Ruin loves appletani (stewed apples with sultanas), so I immediately thought of my Grandma's Apple Cake recipe. Grandma used to serve this most Friday nights after dinner. I dove into my recipe box and unearthed it from the depths.



There's nothing very fancy about the cake. It's a basic vanilla flavoured butter cake encasing a filling of grated apples, sugar, cinnamon and sultanas which Grandma used to make in a small aluminium roasting pan. It's 20 years since my Grandma passed away so it's been a long time since I last tasted this and it tasted just like I remembered.

Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, 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. 

Grandma’s Apple Cake - serves 6
Cake
125 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups self raising flour, sifted
⅔ cup milk

Filling
4 large apples, grated
¼ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup sultanas (golden raisins)

To serve
icing sugar
cream or ice-cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C/375°F. Grease and flour the base and sides of a small baking tin. Cream the butter, the caster sugar and the vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, alternating with the sifted flour and the milk until a soft batter forms.

Spread half the cake mixture over the base of the tin. Mix together all the filling ingredients and layer over the cake mixture in the tin. Top with the rest of the mixture and bake at 180°C for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until golden brown. I used an 11 x 8 inch tin and it was a bit small for the quantity of mixture so next time I would make it in a larger tin. This served 5 people generously.

The cake an be served either warm or cold. Before serving dust with icing sugar and serve with either cream, ice cream or both!



And did Ruin like it? Well he 'lov, lov, loved it!' and told me I could make it for dessert everytime I come over. A liitle bit like my Grandma, I guess.

See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian