Spiced autumn apple cake

Everywhere I look at the moment there seems to be apples. The late September sunshine has made them rosier and rosier by the day and even more appealing. The problem is though these apples have been in trees in other peoples' gardens and thus out of bounds. I came across one apple tree on the way home by spotting the large apples that had rolled into the road and been squashed by passing cars. The tree itself was up a banking which I scrambled up. All of the apples lying on the ground where either rotten or full of wasps having a merry time. The only solution to this problem was to climb the tree and pick off what I wanted. When I told my father about this he said this was scrumping. When we were younger my brother and I had been appalled at the thought of scrumping. It seemed akin to Peter Rabbit rushing into Mr McGregor's garden to steal his carrots. In order to defend myself against such accusations I looked up the definition of scrumping which is, “To steal apples from someone else's garden or orchard”. So since this tree was in no one's garden or orchard case closed.

Onto the cake and the natural spice partners for apples are nutmeg and cinnamon so I used them. With such warming flavours I went dark with the flour and sugar using wholemeal and dark muscovado sugar. So as the days get ever shorter and the strength of the sun gets weaker enjoy a slice or two with a cup of tea.

Equipment: 7in (18cm) round cake tin greased and lined, 2 large bowls, electric whisk/beaters, wire rack.

Ingredients

2 Large apples, peeled and cored

8 oz (225g) Plain wholemeal flour

2 tsp (10ml) Baking powder

2 tsp (10ml) Ground nutmeg

1 tsp (5ml) Cinnamon

4 oz (115g) Unsalted butter, softened or baking spread

8 oz (225g) Dark musovado sugar

2 Large eggs, beaten

1-2 tbsp (5-10ml) Milk

Topping

1 tbsp (15ml) Runny honey

1 tbsp (15ml) Demerara sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/ Gas mark 3.

2. Prepare the apples and then toss in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon.

3. In another bowl put the butter and sugar in and cream together for several minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

4. Fold the flour and apple mixture into the butter, sugar and eggs. If the mixture is too dry and stiff add in 1-2 tbsp (15-30ml) of milk.

5. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 1½ hours.

6. Check the cake is cooked through by inserting a skewer into the cake and checking it comes out clean.

7. Take out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

8. Brush the top of the cake with the honey and then sprinkle over the demerara sugar.