Toffee Apple Cake

It was my Grandad's birthday last Friday and one thing I love doing is making family and friend's birthday cakes. I like to make cakes personal to them, things, flavours, that particular person likes. My Grandad LOVES toffee. To put this in perspective he got six bags of toffee for his birthday (as well as other things, but still.) He's also a lover of a good old fashioned pudding such as Spotted Dick, Apple Crumble, so I decided to combine the two and this is what happened.

You will need

225g self-raising flour

115g unsalted butter

115g light brown sugar

1 egg

8 tbsp milk

225g Bramley apples

100g sultanas

110g butter

220g dark brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp milk

350g icing sugar

1/1 Bramley apple

How to

Preheat oven to 180C/160F/Gas 4

Grease and line one 20cm cake tin

Cube the butter and add into the flour. Crumble them together until it looks like fine bread crumbs.

Stir in the sugar before beating in the egg. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach a smooth batter. 

Peel and core the apples before cubing them and adding them and the raisins to the batter. Stir in until everything is well combined.

Pour into the pre-greased tin and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Warning this cake is very crumbly and moist so be really careful when turning it out of the in. 

Chop an apple into slices ready for later. 

For the icing, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the sugar and salt and boil for about 2 minutes until everything is melted. At this point dip the apples into the toffee and place onto a plate for the toffee to harden. (If you're not serving the cake on the same day as baking do this step before serving)

Take the pan off the heat and add the milk. Bring back to the boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for around 20-30 minutes. 

Take a tablespoon or two from the pan to drizzle over the iced cake later. Sift in the icing sugar and beat until smooth and cool enough to spread. If the mixture stiffens up you may need to add another tablespoon of milk to loosen it up. 

Once you have a smooth mixture spread the icing onto the cake. I like mine to look messy and not too  perfect. Drizzle the toffee sauce you put to one side earlier over the top and then decorate with the apples.

Stick in a couple of candles, or put on the kettle, and enjoy. 

P.S That's my brother and yes he's currently single handed. He volunteered to help.