Apple and Prune Cake

 

I’ll be honest…Apple season is one of the reasons I love Autumn!

Apple season is upon us and the trees this year are groaning at the weight of lovely, crunchy apples! In our house apple season is always met with applause as we are big apple fans! Apple and Blackberry crumble, apple pie, baked apples and pork & apples are just a few recipes that go down well with us. My mum has two huge, old cooking apple trees, one is similar to a braeburn and the other one is not as tart and more like an eating apple in appearance (and doesn’t last as long once picked). Due to this, each Autumn we get bags full of apples, which is never a bad thing! Trying to break the norm with the usual apple recipes, I consulted google for an apple cake that would also incorporate prunes, as I had some that needed using up at the back of the cupboard. I found the following recipe on a blog by Holly, which I loved the sound of – apple, prunes and best of all mixed spice were baked in to a lovely, easy to make cake! The first cake I made didn’t hang around too long and has been so successful, I can’t make enough! I’ve tweaked the original recipe slightly (I rarely stick to a recipe) and the changes have been welcomed, so here it is!

Autumn in every slice!

Apple, Prune and Almond Cake

Makes 1 x 2lb loaf cake

Ingredients

85g/3oz Self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

110g/4oz Margarine

55g/2oz Caster Sugar

55g/2oz Light Brown Sugar (or just 110g/4oz White Sugar)

25g/1oz Ground Almonds

2 tsp Mixed Spice

2 Large Eggs

2 Apples (I use cooking apples)

110g/4oz prunes (chopped)

12g / 1/2oz flaked almonds (to decorate)

Icing Sugar to dust

Preheat your oven to 180c/375f/Gas Mark 4 and line your loaf tin. Next chop your apples and prunes in to small pieces and put to one side. Then add your margarine and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat together until light and creamy. Beat in your eggs one at a time and then fold in the flour, ground almonds, mixed spice and baking powder. Once you’ve got a nice cake mixture add your apples and prunes and mix in to the mixture carefully. The mixture will then become quite loose, tip the mixture in to your tin and sprinkle with the flaked almonds, then place it in the pre-heated oven for 45-55 minutes until the top is brown. Remove from the oven and cool, before serving with a dusting of icing sugar.

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Chop the fruit before you start – it makes it quicker to prepare the cake!

Cream the butter and sugar together

The mixture will become quite wet when you add the fruit!

Fresh out of the oven! Yumm!