Apple Sponge Cake has a crispy top and a thick filling of sliced apples and raisins. Eat hot or cold for pudding or tea.
Apple Sponge Cake
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This was my aunt’s go-to pudding whenever we visited when the children were young. I took the recipe from her, but I’ve modified it a bit. The original was baked in a rectangular tin and cut into squares, but I rather like this as a round cake as it’s slightly deeper.
Don’t be put off by the large amount of sliced apple that you get. It cooks down a bit, and gives this cake a really thick layer of apple – yummy! There isn’t a lot of sugar in the cake mixture, but sprinkling some over the apples means this cake is sweet enough.
This is a good cake to make for people who have been kind enough to donate apples if you don’t have your own trees (which I don’t, sadly). You will have to make two though, because you won’t want to not have one for yourself.
Helpful Tools
- Lemon zester – This zester changed my cooking life. I know I’m late to this particular party but I relied on my box grater for decades. Now I’ve changed to a Microplane type of zester I don’t grate my fingers and it catches the zest so there’s more of it and it goes where I want
- Apple Corer – I managed to cook for 40 years without needing an apple corer. I have to say that I thought it was totally unnecessary and I wouldn’t actually use one. Well, I was wrong. Now I use my Oxo Good Grips Apple Corer every time I use apples in a recipe. It just makes the whole process a bit easier.
If you like this…
…Why don’t you try:
Apple Sponge Cake
Ingredients
For the apple filling:
- 700 g cooking apples
- 80 g caster sugar, divided
- 75 g sultanas
For the sponge cake:
- 1 lemon
- 150 g butter at room temperature
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (10ml)
Instructions
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan/ gas mark 4/ 350°F
- Line the base of the baking tin with baking parchment and/or lightly grease the tin with butter
- Peel and core the apples, and slice thinly
- Mix 50g caster sugar with the sultanas
- Zest the lemon
For the Apple Sponge Cake:
- Beat all the cake ingredients together (using a hand or stand mixer, processor, or by hand)(Butter, sugar, egg, lemon zest, flour, baking powder)
- Spoon half the sponge mixture into the cake tin and level with a palette knife or the back of a spoon
- Evenly cover the mixture with the sliced apples
- Sprinkle the sultana/sugar mix over the apples. Press down with your fingers or the back of a spoon to settle the fruit
- Cover with the rest of the sponge mixture. Level the top and sprinkle the remaining 30g caster sugar over
- Cook for 50-60 minutes, until the cake surface springs back when you touch it lightly with your fingertip
- Cool in the tin or serve warm with custard or cream for pudding.
Made this recipe or got a question? Let me know!