I love apple cake. Apple is my favourite fruit and I can pretty much take it every which way – cake, pie, crumble, in pancakes – or just by itself! This recipe is a really good one as it doesn’t just have apples in one layer at the top of the cake – this cake is crammed full of apples. The cake batter is really there just to hold all of the apples together. The result is an incredibly moist and delicious cake.

It’s from the book ‘Scandinavian Kitchen’ by Camilla Plum – the recipe was published in BBC Good Food magazine, which is where I picked it up from. The recipe below makes two 20cm cakes – but as it really needs to be eaten within a day or two, I halved the recipe and just made one.

I’ve made this both with plain flour and rice flour as specified below – and with all gluten free flour mix and it turned out fine. I served it with a pear poached in syrup and some clotted cream. Yummy!

• 1.6 kg/3lb 8oz apples, cookers or eaters
• 500g/1lb 2oz soft butter, plus extra for greasing
• 500g/1lb 2oz granulated sugar (I used caster)
• 6 eggs
• 350g/12oz plain flour
• 75g/2.5oz rice flour or potato starch
• 2tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the sugar crust

• 140g/5oz granulated sugar or light brown sugar
• 7 cardamom pods, split and seeds inside ground (I left this out)
• 7 star anise, ground (I replaced this with 2 tsp cinnamon)

1. Heat the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas3-4. Quarter and core the apples, but do not peel them. (I ignored this and peeled them anyway). Butter two deep, loose bottomed cake tins with a generous blob of soft butter. Beat the butter and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved – this can take some time. Mix the eggs in one at a time, so they don’t curdle.
2. Sieve the two flours and baking powder into the batter mix and mix thoroughly. Divide the mixture between the tins. Now arrange the apples on top, squeezing them well in so the batter should be bursting with apples. For the topping, mix together the sugar and spices and sprinkles over the cakes.
3. Bake until golden and firm to the touch. This may vary from 1 – 1.5 hrs, depending on the oven and the apples. Test the cake with a skewer and if it comes out clean the cake is done.