Revisiting Vanilla Apple Cake

I love baking new recipes and the excitement that comes as you wait for your new creation to come out of the oven but I also love revisiting recipes that have become firm favourites in my home. I have an abundance of cooking apples as you know from my previous post and whilst browsing for ideas to incorporate my apples I remembered this favourite, Vanilla Apple Cake. It’s the perfect autumnal cake, with its deliciously moist vanilla sponge and chunky apple wedges. We love to savour this rustic looking cake with hot custard or cream but it's also delish on its own to be enjoyed with a nice cup of tea or coffee.

Vanilla Apple Cake

Ingredients
250g/9oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
250g/9oz golden caster sugar (or normal caster sugar)
4 eggs, beaten
250g/9oz self-raising flour
1 vanilla pod, split, seeds removed and reserved (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 small Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges (or any other type of cooking apple, if not apple of your choice)
2 tbsp Demerara sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter a 20cm/8inch springform tin, then line the base with baking paper.

Beat the caster sugar and butter together until the mixture turns pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, flour and vanilla seeds, then beat together quickly to make a smooth batter. Tip into the prepared tin, then lay the apple wedges on top, poking them halfway into the mix. Don’t worry if the apples appear crowded – they’ll shrink as they cook. Sprinkle with the Demerara and cinnamon, then bake for 1 hour 5 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the sponge is risen and golden.

Leave to cool for a few mins, then release the tin and cool the cake completely on a wire rack.

Today I'm adding a pic of my lovely cat Coco. Here she is in one of her favourite places to snuggle and sleep, her Willow's Cat-a-Sphere Cat Bed!