Bramley Apple and Almond Pudding Cake

This decadent cake is a brilliant way to use up any Bramley apples left over from the season. Serve warm with crème fraiche or even custard if you fancy, it will soak into the rich sponge and balance the tart apples

Serves 8

Ingredients

For the apples:

2 large Bramley apples, peeled, quartered and cut into slices 1cm thick

30g unsalted butter

2tbsp soft brown sugar

For the cake:

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature

110g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

75g self raising flour

75g ground almonds

½tsp cinnamon

Flaked almonds

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin.

Start with the apples. Place the 30g of butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat and melt. When it starts to bubble add the soft brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the apples and cook gently turning once for 5-10 minutes until they soften and start to colour. Leave to one side to cool while you make the cake batter.

Whisk the caster sugar and butter together until light and fluffy before adding the eggs one at a time. Add some of the flour in-between each egg to prevent the mixture from splitting.

Combine the remaining flour, almonds and the cinnamon and mix into the eggs and sugar. Scoop the batter into the cake tin and arrange the apples on top, drizzling the juices with them.

Cook for 20 minutes then sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake for a further 20-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Why not try?

This recipe is incredibly versatile and great if you have apple trees because it works just as well with almost any other apple as well as with pears, plums and cherries too. Why not experiment with different combinations?