Apple Cake

Apple and Cinnamon cake

I have a glut of apples on the allotment this year, especially the cookers, so I'm going through recipes trying to use them up. I came across this on the Internet, made a few alterations, and it has turned out well -so I though that I'd share.

Ingredients

• 500g of apples -peeled cored and chopped
• 125 ml sunflower oil
• 275g plain flour 
• 2 eggs
• 200g of soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp bicarb
• 2tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cooking time ~50 min

 Method
  
Grease and flour a 20 * 20 c.m. tin, put the oven on at 180 C. Peel core and dice the apples. Beat the eggs and oil together until a bit frothy, they aren't going to foam. Add the rest of the ingredients, bar the apple, to the mixer and combine together until smooth (ish). The mixture will be pretty stiff at this point. Add the apples, I had the Kenwood going at 1 for this -some of the apples get squashed which loosens up the mixture. Turn out into the tin, levelling off the top and working the mixture into the corners.

Bake for 30 mins, try it with a skewer (you could try it with a Skua, but it will be noisy and the RSPB will hate you). I found that it needed more time so I knocked the heat down to 160 C and it needed 15 - 20 mins, but I got a cake that was just right in texture and not burnt on top.

Variations
Mixed spice, might be nice, or some ginger -perhaps the syrup from stem ginger?
You could add sultanas.
It would probably stand some treacle.
Change the apples -my cookers aren't Bramleys, they are Monarchs -which aren't as sharp as a Bramley and they hold their shape better -hence the chunks in the cake. I would recommend them as a tree for anyone wanting a cooker as you can buy Bramleys anywhere. Mine came from Adams Apples.