I think it’s fair to say that any apple dessert, cake or tart goes down well in my house and while I adore an apple tart I am pretty hopeless when it comes to making pastry so I only make them occasionally. (Promise I will share my most reliable tried and tested recipe for apple tart in a future blog post!).  This Dutch Apple Cake is an absolute winner – delicious, beautifully light, moist and fluffy and can be served warm with some cream, custard or ice cream for dessert or with a cup of tea or coffee.

The recipe is from the same book as last week’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake recipe (Darina Allen’s Easy Entertaining) – gosh did I enjoy that cake last week. At the end of a busy day I would wait until I was on my own, put the kettle on, make a mug of tea, cut a very small sliver of the cake and savour every mouthful. So, so good.

Serves 8 (2 slices each!)
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes

2 free-range large eggs
225g / 8oz caster sugar
110g / 4oz butter, plus a bit extra for greasing
150ml (5floz) full fat milk
185g (6½oz) plain flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
3-4 cooking apples
25g (1 oz) sugar

Cinnamon sugar
25g / 1 oz sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 200ºC / 400ºF / Gas Mark 6

Grease and flour a swiss roll tin 20 x 30 cm (8 x 12 in)

• Whisk the eggs and the caster sugar together in a bowl until the mixture is really thick and fluffy.
• Put the butter and milk in a saucepan, bring to the boil and stir, still boiling, into the egg and sugar mixture.
• Sift the flour and baking powder and fold into the batter carefully, ensuring there are no lumps of flour in it.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin
• Peel and core the apples, cut them into thin slices and arrange them, overlapping each other, on top of the batter.
• Sprinkle with the remaining (25g) of sugar.
• Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4 and continue baking for 20-25 minutes or until the cake is well risen and golden brown.
• Mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle on top.
• Cut into slices and serve with lightly whipped cream, custard or even ice cream.