An apple cake for autumn

If blackberries are the fruit that speak of late summer, then apples sum up autumn for me in all its fruitfulness. There's so much generosity about a tree that's laden with fruit, especially a fruit as versatile as an apple.

On a walk last weekend I gathered an armful of windfalls scattered along a footpath. They were a bit bruised, but after a bit of preparation, fine for cooking with. But what to make? I've got quite a few ways of using up a glut of apples - everything from crumble to chutney and even a savoury pie with cheese and onion.

But my all time favourite is apple cake. I've made this cake most autumns for the last ten years, and it was a real pleasure to make it again. It's full of fruit and spices - not the most elegant kind of cake perhaps, but very good.

I think this is about as many apples as you can get into a cake - in fact with all that fruit, it's almost healthy! Joking aside, the recipe has bit less fat and sugar than many cake recipes. I also use a mixture of butter and  vegetable oil to provide flavour but with a less saturated fat than butter alone. (I'm not a big fan of margarine myself, but you could use an unsaturated margarine instead of butter if you like).

Preparing the apples can be a little time-consuming (especially if they are bruised like mine were) but otherwise it's a fairly easy cake to make.

I've used baking powder as well as self-raising flour, to ensure a cake that's not too heavy despite being full of fruit.

The main thing is that it's delicious. It's particularly good eaten warm or fresh on the day it's made, but it will keep for a few days in an airtight tin.

Ingredients

350g/12oz self-raising flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
3oz butter
3 fl oz / 90ml vegetable oil
140g/5oz granulated sugar
2-3 tsp powdered cinnamon or mixed spice
About a quarter of a nutmeg, freshly grated
450g/1lb apples (prepared weight), peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
3 eggs
Icing sugar, to serve

Method

Heat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 20cm/8in tin.

Mix together the flour, baking power and salt and rub in the butter until the mixture is like fine crumbs. Stir in the vegetable oil, followed by the sugar and spices, then apples and lightly beaten eggs. Make sure the mixture is well stirred, but don't be tempted to add any liquid, even if the mixture seems a bit dry.

Bake in the oven for 1½-2 hours - do check occasionally that the cake is not getting too browned, and turn the oven down and/or cover the cake with foil if necessary. The cake will be cooked when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Dust with icing sugar to serve.