Apple puree Cake Recipe

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Prepare a 22cm / 9 inch cake tin by lightly buttering it and lining the base.

If you have not got any pre-made apple puree, peel some cooking apples then core and quarter them (weight will be more than the 175g / 6 oz but you can eat the balance with some sugar, while cooking the rest of the cake). Place in a pan and put lid on; heat under a medium heat until hot, then reduce heat to a low heat and let the apples stew until soft. Squash them through a sieve to give you your apple puree.

This next bit is optional and involves preparing the dried fruit. I put the dried fruit into a pan, then brewed a strong mug of black tea. The black tea was then poured over the fruit and I boiled the fruit for about 10 minutes until nice andplump. Sieve off the excess tea and leave to cool. You can ignore this stage and simply use the dried fruit, but I like doing this as it reduces that jaw-aching, chewiness of dried fruit, while adding another flavour dimension to your baking.

Sieve together the organic plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sea salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Cream together the butter and caster sugar. Add the eggs – half at first, followed by a tablespoon of the flour mix, then add the remainder. Now add in the cooled apple puree and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the flour mix and mix together. Finally add the sultanas and currants and make sure it is mixed well.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50 minutes. Towards the end start checking the consistency of the cake, by gently touching the top and feeling whether it is springy rather than liquidy. If it is cooking too slowly reduce the temperature to 160C / 320F and cook for another 5 – 10 minutes.

Leave to cool in tin for about 5 minutes, then remove from the cake tin and let cool completely on a wire rack.