Apple Crumble Teacake

This could be just about the best cake in the world. It’s more than a cake, sort of a cake/dessert hybrid – and if I haven’t caught your attention with a statement like that, then what are you doing on this site in the first place?


You can serve it at room temperature for tea with some whipped cream, or warm for dessert with custard or ice cream. Or with my awesome custard cream, (the recipe for which is set out further down under the title “Custard cream”):



I love the way the apples are cushioned by the cake, it all puffs up around them while baking – it’s great when you cut a slice and get to see how far the apples have bedded down. There’s a great mix of taste and texture too – light, crumbly, buttery sponge; soft sweet apple chunks and the sugar and spice, slightly crunchy crumble topping. Heaven on a plate, and what better time of year than autumn to celebrate the apple?



Ingredients:

For the cake:
200g unsalted butter
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 apples (I used Braeburn but Gala or Cox would work too)

For the crumble topping:
50g caster sugar
50g plain flour
50g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

How to make:

- preheat oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/ Gas mark 4 and line a 23cm springform cake tin with baking paper – I prefer the cake tin liners you can buy, the ones that look like giant cupcake cases, because then there is no need to grease the tin.
- Make the crumble topping by putting all the ingredients in a bowl and rubbing the butter in until you get a coarse crumb texture. Put to one side.
- Now make the cake: melt the butter in a saucepan and then leave to cool.
- Put the eggs and sugar into a large bowl and whisk. This is where a free standing mixer, such as a kitchenaid really earns its keep as you can let it whisk away whilst you get on with other things. If you haven’t got one, use as electric hand whisk as this takes a lot of whisking. At least 10 minutes. Whisk until the mixture has increased hugely in volume and is very pale and fluffy. It should soufflé up to 4 or 5 times it’s start size. In my kitchenaid it came about 2/3 of the way up the bowl.
- Add the flour and melted butter (strain the butter through a sieve so the white bits that will have formed don’t get in the mix) to the egg mix and fold in thoroughly.
- Pour (it will be runny) into the cake tin.
- Peel and core the apples and cut each one into 8 segments.
- Lay these gently on top of the cake mix; it is important that you do this carefully so they don’t disappear into the mix.
- Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples.
- Bake for approx 1.5 hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Probably best to start checking on it after 1 hour 10 mins as different ovens cook at different speeds.
- Cool in tin. I find that the cake dips a tiny bit as it cools but nothing dramatic.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.