Further to my reading and reviewing of Mary Berry’s autobiography (review here), I was keen to try one of the recipes from her book.  It’s easy to make but has a long bake time of over an hour so allow plenty of time.

What you need:

225g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g melted butter
350g apples, peeled, cored and sliced
(I used regular eating apples as I had some to use up)
25g flaked almonds

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 160°c and grease and line a 20cm baking tin.

Put the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl.

Stir in the eggs, almond extract and butter.  Beat well either in freestanding mixer or with electric whisk.

Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin.  Arrange the apple slices on top and then cover with the remaining mixture.

This does make quite a stodgy thick mixture so is quite difficult to spread in the tin without dragging the apples or the baking paper.

The receipe advises bake for approx 1 1/2 hours but I took mine out after 1 hour and 1/4 and it was slightly overdone then – crispy edges etc.  So I’d recommend check from an hour onwards.

Leave to cool before turning out of the tin.  Ideally best served warm and in my opinion with lashings of custard!  One small criticism, it needs more apple, a lot more apple as the almond taste if quite overpowering.

Until next time….Happy Baking!