She'll be apples

Lets just start this story with the fact that my husband does not eat cooked apples. So even though I would like to have a bit of apple pie or the likes every now and then, we don't. Now that he is away I really had the urge to make a cooked apple dish, I mean you have got to take your chances when they arise, don't you think? After ten years together you can imagine the state of apple depravity I am in.

In my childhood our family had a dessert we cooked called German Apple Cake. I have no idea about its authenticness in the German department, I have a suspicion that its called that just because the apples, sultanas and spices make it slightly related to strudel.

I knew which cookbook it was likely to be in, I turned to the back to start looking in the index and there, in my Grandma's handwriting it said this:

Talk about a family recipe. Thanks Grandma, you're lovely. This recipe has all the good stuff in it (not the whole block of butter though, don't worry).

If you want to make your own, its super simple, here is ze protokoll:

German Apple Cake

Cake

125g butter

90g sugar

1 cup plain or SR flour*

1 egg

Filling

3 cooking apples

2 tablespoons sultanas

1 tablespoon raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

juice of 1 lemon

Cake: Melt butter in a large saucepan, add sugar and stir until it is beginning to dissolve. Add flour and stir well, beat in egg. Grease an 18cm cake tin (glass pyrex dish works well) and using fingers spread a little more than half the cake mixture over the bottom.

Filling: Peel, core and slice apples, place half of these in layers over the cake mixture. Mix together sultanas, sugar and spices and sprinkle over apple slices. Cover with the rest of apple and sprinkle with lemon juice. Spread remaining cake mixture on top, in spoonfuls.

Cook in moderate oven for 45 mins.

Mmm. Buttery, sweet, cakey, and best of all, apples. The small and I are eating it with custard, ice-cream is good too.

*Obviously SR flour will make a fluffy cake, plain flour will make a dense slice like version.