German Apple Cake

This recipe has been a family favourite of ours for a very long time. We've always known it as 'German Apple Cake' but I can't guarantee it's origins came from Germany. It's lovely served warm straight from the oven with a dollop of cream but if you can resist eating it all then it stays fresh for a few days because it's so buttery and moist.

What you'll need:

125g butter
90g sugar
125g self raising flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g flaked almonds
3 cooking apples
3 tblsp sultanas
1 tblsp raw sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Icing sugar to serve

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the sugar and stir until it starts to dissolve. Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix well before adding the sifted flour. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. Spread about 2/3 of the cake mixture over the bottom of the pan.

For the filling, peel the apples and slice very thinly (I use either a mandolin or a potato peeler). Place half the apple slices in a layer over the cake mixture and scatter the sultanas evenly on top of the apple slices. Mix the raw sugar and spices together and sprinkle over the sultanas. Cover with remaining apple slices and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Spread the remaining cake mixture on top in spoonfuls. Scatter the flaked almonds over the top of the cake and bake in a 180 degrees oven for 45 mins. Leave in the cake tin for 5-10 mins then remove and sift a light sprinkling of icing sugar over the top of the cake.