The Best Apple Cake

A delicious and easy way to use up all those apples everyone has weighing down their trees this year. The cake freezes well, if it makes it that far!

• 350g self-raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• 225g butter
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 175g castor sugar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 100g sultanas/raisins
• 1/2tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 large eggs
• Zest of a lemon
• 450g cooking apples or part cooking/part dessert

Grease a 20cm loose-bottomed tin, and set the oven at 180C/Gas 4.

Put the flour, spices, salt and butter in a food processor and whizz until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs (or rub in by hand). Put into a large bowl, and mix in the dried fruit and sugar. Peel and core the apples, and chop them into rough pieces (they do not need to be tiny, and assorted shapes/sizes is fine!). Add to the other ingredients with the lemon zest and eggs and stir everything together until well mixed. If the mixture is too dry to mix, add a little milk. Spoon into the cake tin, and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until firm to the touch. If it starts to get too brown, cover lightly with some foil.

Cool in the tin, but on a wire rack.

It also makes a great pudding, warm and squidgy from the oven, with whipped cream or ice cream!