This is the perfect tea cake for autumn, with whole cinnamon poached apples baked inside the cake and with a buttery cinnamon crumble topping. Pop the kettle on , this cake was made for drinking with a cup of tea or coffee. As if that wasn’t enough, to make it extra special serve it with a rich Butterscotch Sauce and everything is all right with the world.
I saw a recipe for something similar in a women’s magazine one day, and it was begging to be made. When sliced, the cake reveals the whole poached apples within, which I think makes it truly pretty and delicious. You get chunks of the poached apple, the moist and nutty cake and a dollop of the rich butterscotch sauce. Or if you prefer serve it with a Creamy Custard instead and a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.
For an even simpler take on this Apple Tea Cake, check out my recipe for French Apple Cake where you don’t have to poach the Apples, but still results in a beautiful moist cake.
What you need to make Apple and Cinnamon Crunch Cake
- Small apples about 100g each. I used mini Pink Lady apples and they are usually sold in 1 kilo packs and at this time of the year they are ridiculously cheap. You can also use Granny Smith variety if that’s what you have. I’ve also tried this with mini Packham Pears and they are just equally scrumtious.
- Almond Meal or Almond Flour for moistness , or any other nut flour you have.
- Pantry/Fridge Staples -Caster Sugar,Brown Sugar,Self Raising Flour,Plain Flour, Butter,Milk, Cream Vanilla and Cinnamon Powder or a stick of Cinnamon.
Easy does it..
- Peel (keep the stems intact for presentation ) and poach apples in sugar and cinnamon. This takes about 10 minutes. Line a 23cm baking tin (preferably loose bottomed) with baking paper.
- Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Then add vanilla and eggs one at a time beating well to combine after each addition.
- Use a spatula to fold in flour,almond flour and milk to make the cake batter.
- Pour batter into baking paper lined baking tin. Place poached apples around the pan making sure to space them evenly. See photo above for reference. Push the apples into the bottom of the pan then bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- While the cake is baking, make the butterscotch sauce if using, and the crumble topping.
- After 30 minutes of baking, remove cake from the oven and crumble the cinnamon topping on top of the cake.
- Return the cake to the oven and bake for a further 25 minutes or until the cake is golden.
- Run a knife around the edge of the cake tin to loosen the cake , and transfer cake to a serving platter.
- Serve with butterscotch sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream.