Apple, Sultana and Walnut cake

Baking requires an exceptional eye. Says Marigold. I pondered this as I run up and down the stairs to check on my cake every 5 minutes. It looked golden brown and delicious, sprang back when pressed but persisted to fail the skewer test. With mighty strength, I resisted the temptation to take it out early. Apparently fruity cakes (which happen to be my favourite type of cake) are especially problematic because they take longer and cook and then carry on cooking after you take them out of the oven.

By the way, apologies for my lack of posts recently; my only excuse is moving house and starting a new job, both of which happened at least 3 months…I credit this one to Emily for enthusiastically urging me to start posting again. And the fact that I got back from London this afternoon with an unusual but pressing desire to bake a cake.

I do not bake. Or rather, I do bake but whatever it is never turns out the way I intended. This time was more successful than most. The cake filled the house with a beautiful smell and came out of the oven, as it should have done: sweet, moist, dotted with apple and walnut and aromatic with cinnamon. The only downfall was that I didn’t grease the tin liberally enough and the cake crumbled a bit. But it still tasted damn good. And I even persuaded Marigold to try a bit in her weak and worse for the wear state.

Here is the recipe, direct from Marigold:

Preheat oven 180’c and line a cake tin (if you can be bothered)

Use an electric mixer to combine

225g soft margarine

225g light muscavado sugar

3 large eggs

225g self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 teaspoons (or if you are me, more) cinnamon

Mix.

Then add

150g sultanas

120g walnuts (chopped quite small)

400-450g apples, cored and chopped quite small (don’t bother peeling)

Combine with cake mix with spoon.

Add to baking tray/tin/receptacle and top with (whole) walnuts and Demerara sugar and cinnamon and apple slices (if you’re feeling decorative)

Bake in oven for about 1 hour- 1.5 hours until risen and golden brown and peeling away at the edges.

Leave to cool.