A dense, moist and flavourful cake that has Autumn written all over it. Yes, it’s a late post but this cake was too good not to share. Better late than never!

The apple tree in the back garden of our new house gave us a lovely welcome present. 3 kilos of apples were knocked down with a football (soccer, if you must) and a little help from our friends. (Welcome to new age apple picking.)

I first made a big batch of apple butter with some warming apple pie spice. Most of it was polished off over breakfast. But I kept 2 cups aside to make this cake. Am I glad I did!

I’m now looking forward to making this a regular on the baking list, thanks to our resident apple tree.

Ingredients:

250 grams flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups spiced apple butter

120 grams lightly salted butter

3/4 cup muscovado sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to Gas 4 or 350 F. Grease and paper an 8″ cake tin.

2. Sieve the flour and baking powder together about 2-3 times so that you incorporate as much air as possible.

3. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together. Add in the eggs and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add in the apple butter. Mix well.

4. Add the flour mixture, a little at a time. Mix well by hand (or with your mixer at a low speed). Mix in the walnuts.

5. Pour batter into cake tin and smoothen with a spatula.

6. Bake for about 45 minutes. The top should be golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.

7. Cool for about 10-15 minutes before releasing it from the cake tin.

8. Cut into wedges and savour every last crumb.

Notes:

1. Oven temperatures can vary so work with what’s best for your oven. The skewer test is the best way to tell if it’s done.

2. You can add more apple pie spice or a mix of powdered cinnamon, ginger, cloves and all spice. I left this out as the apple butter had all of this in abundance.

3. The muscovado sugar gives it a lovely dark colour that I like. It can easily be replaced by regular sugar.

4. If you choose to use unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt to your cake batter.

Filed under: Baking, Cakes Tagged: apple butter, apple cake, Autumn cake, autumn comfort foods, epicurious, Mumsnet, Mumsnet Blogging Network, spiced apple cake