Today I am sharing an easy apple cake recipe that’s so easy you can make it at home or away.
I’ve been serving it with custard in these little enamel dishes* – my husband said “why is it served in these – we’re not camping” and I said “no but they look nice don’t they”.
Keeping in with the home away from home theme, this post is written in partnership with Cottages.com.
We are huge fans of self catering holidays and a cottage is likely to offer more robust cooking facilities than a mobile home. When I’m away on holiday I love to potter in local food shops and markets and buy local ingredients. It’s a real bonus to have the flexibility to cook indoors or sample local restaurants – rather than being obliged to eat out every night if you were staying in a hotel.
Properties listed with Cottages.com are vetted to match Visit England and Visit Scotland standards. You can search for cottage rentals that are dog friendly, child friendly as well as size and geographic location. At the time of writing, over 300 cottages in Dorset were offered although new ones are added all the time.
Cottages.com is the new name for Cottages4U – who had been our choice for our very first self catering holiday with a baby in tow back in 2008. We’d been able to book somewhere with a cot and high chair for our then 1 year old. This was especially welcome as we had enough baby paraphrenalia as it was.
So Cottages.com asked me to create a regional bake to match one of the geographical areas where they let holiday cottages online.
This apple cake recipe is actually known as Dorset Apple Cake. I must confess Dorset is not somewhere I’ve spent much time but it’s firmly on my list after watching episodes of Broadchurch!
A photo posted by Broadchurch (@broadchurchuk) on
Other regional British bakes you could make whilst on holiday could be:
- Bakewell Pudding (Derbyshire)
- Treacle Tart (Norfolk)
- Singing Hinnies (Yorkshire)
- Snowdon Pudding (Wales)
Really Easy Apple Cake Recipe
This is a really easy recipe – probably warming the oven and weighing the ingredients will take longer than mixing it. The flour is rubbed by hand with the butter as if you were making pastry, then the other ingredients are stirred in afterwards.
My little helper got fully involved today, this is an ideal recipe to bake with kids.
In my experience, self catering kitchens tend to have a fairly standard selection of equipment. If there isn’t a baking tin in your holiday accommodation you could improvise with a pyrex glass dish* or other oven dish lined with baking parchment paper.
Although you might not have a steel mixing bowl* as such, you are bound to have a salad bowl of some description. Or you could improvise with a large saucepan. And if there’s no whisk you can just as easily mix this recipe with a fork so long as the butter is soft enough.
What would you bake whilst away on holiday?
A photo posted by Sarah Trivuncic (@maisoncupcake) on
Really Easy Apple Cake Recipe (no fancy equipment required)
Ingredients
- 225 g self-raising flour I used a gluten free self raising flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 115 g unsalted butter diced and chilled, plus extra for greasing
- 115 g light brown sugar
- 1 large egg beaten
- 6-8 tbsp milk
- 225 g Bramley or Granny Smith apple peeled, cored and diced
- 100 g sultana
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar optional
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line a deep 20cm cake tin with baking parchment.*
- Mix the flour and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub into the flour using your fingers, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the light brown sugar. Beat in the egg followed by 6 - 8 tbsp of milk – you want to achieve a smooth, thick batter.
- Add the apples and sultanas and mix to combine. Scrape the batter into your prepared tin and gently level out. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool further. Best served still warm with a little custard.
Notes
I am sending this easy apple cake recipe to:
Cook Blog Share – hosted by Kirsty
Bake of the Week – this week hosted by ME (to be rounded up by Helen next week)
Food Year Link Up – Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen (for Coeliac Awareness Week)
More Bramley apple baking recipes on Maison Cupcake
If you like this easy apple cake recipe try also…
*Affiliate links used. This post featuring an easy apple cake recipe from Dorset was commissioned by Cottages.com. (I am also an ongoing blogger ambassador for Bramley Apples.)
Jacqueline Meldrum says
They look look appealing in those dishes. I can imagine Graham being flummoxed by it too. Fabulous looking cake and nice to see Ted in the kitchen again. Sweetheart that he is! Stumbled, pinned, tweeted, yummed and instagram liked. LOVE IT!!!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
I think Nick was thrown because usually I heat things in the oven in them or serve olives in them at the table. So to get cake and custard in them twice confused him!!
Katie Bryson says
This looks like a lush dessert idea Sarah… loving the faff free approach to baking perfect for self catering holidays. We’ve had many happy cottage holidays in the UK, it’s wonderful when you’ve got kids to be able to set up shop in another home! Good to see Ted getting stuck in with the baking there…
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Yes he keeps asking if we can bake cakes. Not sure where he gets it from haha!
Corina says
What a great cake – love how it can be served as a warm pudding with custard!
Lucy @ BakingQueen74 says
Love this easy recipe and it is ideal for cooking while self-catering. I never know what to make when on holiday and we all need a slice of cake to make us feel at home!
Eb Gargano says
What a fab cake! Love your tips for making this on holiday – we love self-catering holidays – so much more family friendly than hotels but do you know I’ve never considered making a cake whilst on holiday – must try that next time! Eb x
lisa says
This looks beautiful, not only the cake but the holiday too! I agree, I love self catering holidays and it’s important to still indulge and get a bit creative when you get there. xxx
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
What a delicious looking cake Sarah, and perfect served with custard in your cute blue dishes. #CookBlogShare
Angela x
Camilla @FabFood4All says
Apple cake is my absolute favourite cake and your looks fabulous, great idea to serve with custard;-)
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Mmmmm I love apple cake, especially with lots of custard! Delicious! Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
The cake looks so good and perfectly paired with custard!
Charlotte Oates says
I love those bowls, they definitely should’t just be reserved for picnics and camping. We’re big fans of self-catering holidays too, more so since having children as it means we can ensure we’ve always got food they like and also because they simply find it too tiring eating out 3 times a day. This cake sounds brilliant for making on holiday because there always seems to be a slightly random selection of kitchen equipment and it sounds pretty easy to adapt this to whatever you’ve got.
I’m off to Google a Snowdon pudding now as I live quite near there and I’ve never heard of it!