Chunky apple, raisin, walnut and cider cake
- Published: 2 Oct 15
- Updated: 18 Mar 24
Debbie Major’s chunky apple cake recipe is full of warming spices and surprising textures, perfect for an autumn afternoon.
Or, for a similar recipe, take a look at our sugar-crusted Dorset apple cake.
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Serves 8-10
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Hands-on time 20 min, oven time 1 hour 25 min, plus soaking
Ingredients
- 50g each sultanas and raisins
- 6 tbsp medium-sweet cider
- 215g plain flour
- 15g cornflour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 300g golden caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
- 175g butter, softened
- 2 medium free-range eggs
- 750g eating apples (about 6), peeled, cored and cut into 1cm pieces
- 100g lightly toasted walnuts, broken into small pieces
Method
- Put the sultanas and raisins into a small bowl, cover with 3 tbsp of the cider and set aside for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm round, loose-bottomed cake tin. Tie a thick band of folded newspaper around the outside of the tin, so it projects about 8cm above the edge of the tin, and secure it in place with string (this will stop any over-browning).
- Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder, salt and ground/grated spices into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and butter and beat on a medium speed for 1 minute, stopping and scraping the mixture down the sides of the bowl, if necessary, until well mixed.
- Add the eggs and mix on low speed for a few seconds, then increase the speed and beat for 1 minute until light and fluffy. Beat in the remaining 3 tbsp cider.
- Fold in the prepared apples, sultanas/raisins and walnuts. The mixture will look too thick and too appley, but don’t worry. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and gently level the surface.
- Bake for 1 hour 25 minutes, covering loosely with foil or a double sheet of baking paper once it’s richly browned on top, until it is firm to the touch and a skewer pushed into the centre comes away clean. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. Remove from the tin to a plate, sprinkle with caster sugar and serve.
- Recipe from September 2015 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 501kcals
- Fat
- 23.1g (10.4g saturated)
- Protein
- 6.3g
- Carbohydrates
- 64.9g (46.8g)
- Fibre
- 2.7g
- Salt
- 0.9g
delicious. tips
The cake can be made up to 2 days in advance. Keep in a sealed container in a cool room. Or freeze for up to 1 month.
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This cake is absolutely delicious, wholesome. Before baking it I read the previous review and decided to only add half the amount of apple. The cake was beautifully cakey and not wet at all. Definitely making this a family favourite.
The flavour of this cake is delicious but it really does contain a LOT of apple and so the result is more like a stodgy pudding. It was hard to cut and some parts were very dense as the moisture content makes it heavy, but it is very yummy. I think I’ll miss out a third of the apples when making it again and see how that works out.