Really Very Exceptionally Good Apple Cake

Personal photo

When I made this cake Ross took a bite before I did.
I asked him how it was.
He said without thinking about it  "It's good."
Then he paused and thought about it and said, "No.  It's really very exceptionally good."

Personal photo

So moist, tasty, and fairly easy to make.

Ingredients*:
4 medium dessert apples
200 grams (14 tbsp) butter
200 grams (1 cup) golden caster sugar (super fine sugar)
3 large eggs, beaten
140 grams (1 cup) self-raising flour
50 grams (1/2 cup) ground almonds
2 tbsp brandy, plus extra to drizzle

for the glaze:
1 tbsp brandy
2 tbsp apricot jam

1.  Preheat the oven to 355°F/180°C/160°C- fan assited.  Butter the inside of a 20" round cake pan.
2.  Peel, slice, and core the apples.  Slice them pretty thinly. I used a handy dandy apple machine like this:

thing-a-ma-bob

3.  Melt a small spoonful of butter in a pan.  Put in the apple slices and cook them for about 5 minutes, until they are soft.  Pour over the brandy and then set aside to cool.

4.  In a food processor, cream the butter.  Then add the sugar and beat it until it's well-mixed.

5.  Add the eggs to the mix a little at a time.

6.  Add the flour and ground almonds.

7.  Gently stir in half of the apple slices.

8.  Spoon into the cake pan.

9.  Sprinkle the rest of the apple slices on top of the batter.  Press them gently into the cake.

10.  Bake for 1 hour.  Check it at 45 minutes to see if the top is browning too quickly (if so, cover the top with aluminum foil).  The cake is done when a knife comes out cleanly.  The cake still looks a little wet at this point, but as long as the knife comes out clean, you're good to go!

11.  Poke little holes all over the cake, then drizzle with a little brandy.

12.  Melt the apricot jam and mix with the brandy to make the glaze.  After the cake is cool, brush the glaze over the top and serve.

13.  Say, "MMmmmmm!  Yummy!"  and try not to eat too many slices at once :)

*British recipes do things in weights.  The conversion depends on when substance you're measuring.  It's pretty easy to google the conversions, but I'm so nice that I've done it for you.  You're welcome.