This will be of no surprise to regular readers, but I do like a good apple cake. And I do like a good ginger cake. So when I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it. I’ve adapted it a little to allow for ingredients I didn’t have, but overall it turned out very well. Instead of toasted pecan ice cream, I served mine with a toffee sauce. The easiest toffee sauce in the world, that tastes amazing.

Ingredients

1. 200g butter, softened, plus extra to grease
2. 200g dark muscovado sugar
3. 275g plain flour
4. 3 tsp baking powder
5. 2 tsp ground ginger
6. 3 large free-range eggs
7. 300ml milk
8. 6 tbsp golden syrup, plus extra for drizzling
9. 2 eating apples, cored and finely sliced
10. 3 pieces of stem ginger in syrup, drained and finely chopped
11. 3 tbsp stem ginger syrup

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 23cm square cake tin with baking paper. Put the butter in a large bowl with the sugar, then beat well with an electric hand whisk for 5 minutes until light, pale and creamy. Add the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, eggs, milk and 4 tbsp golden syrup, then mix well.
2. Drizzle the base of the tin with the rest of the golden syrup, then lay the sliced apples over the top, so they overlap each other.

3. Stir the stem ginger and 1 tbsp ginger syrup into the batter, then pour it into the tin over the layer of apples. Bake for 50 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then turn out so the apples are uppermost. Peel off the paper, then glaze with the rest of the ginger syrup.

5. To make the toffee sauce, melt some toffees in a pan over a gentle heat (I used Thornton’s special toffee). When melted, add double cream a little at a time and stir through gently until the colour and consistency you desire. It’s that easy.