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Apple Pound Cake with Pine Nuts in striped cornish blue bowls with custard
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Apple Pound Cake With Pine Nuts

Classic sponge loaf cake making use of old apples
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Course: Baking, Dessert, pudding
Cuisine: British, french inspired
Keyword: apple loaf cake, apple pound cake, quatre quart cake
Servings: 8

Equipment

  • 1 loaf tin smaller "one pound" size, around 24cm long
  • 1 loaf tin liner or baking parchment paper

Ingredients

  • 125 g butter softened
  • 125 g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs large
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 125 g plain flour sieved
  • 20 g pine nuts
  • 1 apple
  • 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Instructions

  • Pre-heat the oven to 180c with fan (or without a fan 190c / Gas Mark 5).
  • In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
  • Crack the two eggs onto the creamed butter and sugar mix, add the vanilla extract. Quickly beat some more until just incorporated.
  • With a metal spoon, lightly fold the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the flour.
  • Add the flour to the cake batter one third at a time, quickly beat in until there are no lumps or bits of flour visible - the batter should be smooth but not over worked.
  • Line a small loaf tin with a paper liner or baking parchment paper. Spoon the batter into the tin evenly.
  • Scatter the pine nuts over the cake batter in the tin. Cut the apple into slim slices, trimming out the core. Press these into the top surface of the cake batter.
  • Finally, scatter over the demerara sugar and bake the cake for 30 minutes. As your oven may differ to mine, check how it's doing after 25 minutes. The cake is done when a cake tester or skewer comes out cleanly, if the surface scorches before this happens, you can cover the top with some foil.
  • Allow the cake to cool slightly before lifting it in the paper line to a cooling tray.
  • You can either serve this cake soon after baking, warm with custard (or ice cream), or allow it to cool completely.
  • The cooled cake can be stored in a tin at room temperature for 24 hours or several days in the fridge. The flavour and texture will be better if you give a chilled cake some time to come back to room temperature.

Notes

I use a handheld electric mixer but you can either beat the cake mix by hand with a whisk or use a stand mixer.