Spiced Pear Cake with Star Anise

It was my dads birthday at the end of November and I created this cake especially for him. He shares my love of cake and so I really wanted to create him a cake using some flavours he might not have tasted before. I was originally hovering around the idea of beetroot, but I casually suggested beetroot flavoured desserts during conversation and he wasn’t keen so I knew I had to come up with something different. My next thought was something with some spice.

As I was hunting through our spice cupboard (we literally have an entire three shelved cupboard donated just to herbs, spices and seasonings) I came across some star anise I bought a few months back but have never done anything with. I gave it a sniff and the smell instantly reminded me of liquorice. I decided to see what would happen if I blitzed it in our spice grinder, seeds, husk and all.

I took the lid off the grinder and was hit with an intense spicy, liquorice, almost aniseed aroma that was just intoxicating. Wow – this could be fun! I decided to combine it with fresh pears and added the other spices to help mellow and balance the anise. I added a little extra flour to help combat the juices that were sure to seep out the pear during baking and used a mix of caster and soft brown sugar for flavour.

The cake baked up well and I loved how little chunks of pear poked out of the top and sides. I decided to use a simple plain buttercream to fill and top the cake as I wanted the cake layers themselves to be the stars of the show. However, I did use a recipe for evaporated milk buttercream that my grandmother gave me. It follows the same principles as standard buttercream only you use a tin of evaporated milk instead of regular milk. For some reason you can use a lot more of the evaporated milk than usual, without the buttercream turning runny. It seems to thicken up as you whisk it in creating a very light and creamy buttercream.

I went for a simple decoration by cutting the outline of a pear out of paper to create a stencil that I then dusted cinnamon over. I thought this looked quite stylish and hinted at what was inside the cake. The finished cake smelt divine, warm and spicy but in a different and slightly unusual way.

The cake cut easily and was much enjoyed by the family. As I hadn’t made it gluten free I had to sit there are watch them all eating it (so hard), but my reward came from the many groans and exclamations of appreciation I got from the tasters. The pear kept the cake wonderfully moist and everyone was so excited over the unusual spicing. They had fun guessing what it was and my dad guessed correctly in the end – well done dad!

They ate the cake over three days and I’m told that the spices developed even more the longer it stood, like a good gingerbread, and that it stayed fresh and moist thanks to the pear. I’m longing to try converting this recipe into a gluten free cake, and I’ll defiantly be using star anise again in the future.

Spiced Pear Cake with Star Anise
(An Apple & Spice creation)

Ingredients
210g self raising flour
100g butter
100g caster sugar
80g soft brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp freshly ground star anise*(see note below)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 large ripe pear – 250g whole/200g peeled, cored and diced
1½ tsp baking powder
50ml milk

Evaporated Milk Buttercream
180g butter
360g icing sugar
75-100ml evaporated milk
Cinnamon for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease two 8inch/20cm cake tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper.
Make sure your butter is softened and add to a bowl along with the flour, sugars, baking powder and spices.
Peel, core and finely dice the pear into 1-1.5cm cubes and set aside (you don’t have to be too precise).
Add the eggs to the dry mix and beat with an electric mixer until the batter starts to combine. Add the milk and beat again until the batter is smooth, light and well combined, about 1 minute.
Carefully fold in the diced pear using a spatula.
Divide the cake mix between the two cake tins and level the surface. Bake for 28-30 minutes until the cakes are lightly golden brown and springy to the touch when pressed in the centre.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before turning out of the pan and carefully peeling away the greaseproof paper. Leave to cool while you make the buttercream.

Buttercream

Make sure your butter is soft. Beat the butter with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Sift over the icing sugar, half at a time and use a spatula to start to work the sugar into the butter. (Don’t go straight in with the whisk or else you’ll create a sugar dust cloud!)
Add a tablespoon of the milk to slacken, before adding the rest of the icing sugar and working it in with a spatula as before. Once the icing sugar is starting to form clumps with the butter, add another tablespoon of the evaporated milk and switch to the electric mixer. Beat until smooth and creamy.
With the electric mixer still running, slowly drizzle in the rest of the evaporated milk until you have a thick creamy buttercream. It may seem like a lot but it should take most of it – some icing sugars may take a little more or less so use your judgement.
Keep whisking until you have a smooth, light and creamy buttercream.

Assembly
Place one of the cooled pear cake layers on a serving plate and cover with two-thirds of the buttercream. Top with the second layer of pear cake and use the remaining buttercream to cover the top of the cake.
Scatter the top of the cake with a light dusting of ground cinnamon, either all over or through a stencil to create a design (I made a pear outline stencil).
Serve in generous slices.
Makes one 8inch/20cm cake

*Note: If you don’t have a spice grinder to create your own star anise powder then simply crush two whole star anise and add them to the milk required in the cake mix. Heat the milk until it comes to the boil then remove it from the heat and leave to steep for 1 hour to allow the star anise flavour to permeate the milk. Then remove the star anise and use the scented milk as above.

Getting That Festive Feeling: Gluten Free Christmas Cake

Baking the Christmas cake is something I look forward to every year. Its fun choosing the fruit combination, I always stick to the basics but try to have something a little different each time. The fruit is then soaked overnight in brandy before being baked into the dark spicy cake mix the following day. Whereupon more brandy is added and the baked cake is wrapped up tight and squirreled away to mature for a few weeks before being marzipaned and iced in the run up to Christmas. Having to wait before eating it fills me with excited anticipation, and I’m sure it makes it tastes better when I finally get to taste it on Christmas Day. There is just something so festive and traditional about its preparation and the aromas that waft through the house on baking that it can’t help but put me in a good mood.

I normally try to get the cake baked by mid November so it has lots of time to mature, but I have only just got round to it this year – where have the days gone?? The arrival of a light scattering of snow at the end of last week meant staying indoors with the Christmas cake mix was a far cosier prospect than venturing outside, so now we have Christmas cake!

This year the Christmas cake is, of course, going to be gluten free. However, this does not offer any problems as Christmas cake is basically lots of fruit stuck together with a bit of cake mix, rather than a cake containing fruit. Its got so much fruit that you don’t need to worry about it not rising or being fluffy enough as this is not that sort of cake. You could even replace the all the flour with ground almonds and still end up with a delicious cake.

For my cake I decided to use a combination of buckwheat flour and brown rice flour. I love the flavour of buckwheat and the brown rice has a nice fine texture, plus a bit of hidden fibre never hurt anyone. If you want to make a non GF cake then just add the same amount of plain flour in place of the rice and buckwheat flours. If you do want to make this cake gluten free then be sure to check your ingredients carefully. I’ve used fresh citrus zest in place of candied peel as I prefer it, but I did look at the back of the packet and was surprised to see that they’d added wheat flour to try and prevent the little peel pieces from sticking together. Why they bother when it’s covered in sticky syrup anyway I don’t know, but be sure to check!

I love the colours of this fruit mix. It’s so cheering to cut into a slice of the dark cake and see the glossy reds, browns and oranges of the dried fruits peeping out. After the fruits have been soaking in brandy they smell heavenly, all sweet, citrusy and alcoholic. However, nothing surpasses the aroma that wafts from the oven while the cake is baking, hot warm spices and sticky dark treacle – ahh bliss.

Feel free to adapt the fruit and soaking liquid below to suit your own preferences or whatever you have on hand. I added some dried apple this time but in the past I’ve used dried cranberries, figs and prunes. Experiment and have fun!

Click below to see my Christmas cakes from Christmases past (Look back through November and December from 2 years ago for a complete set-by-step guide to creating a Christmas cake.
I’ll do another post nearer Christmas and show you this years design!

3 years ago – Poinsettia
2 years a go – Holly Wreath
1 year ago – Gingerbread House

Gluten Free Christmas Cake

Fruit Soaking Mix
170g raisins
170g sultanas
50g dried apricots
50g glace cherries
35g dried apple rings
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of ½ orange
50ml brandy

Cake Mix
100g buckwheat flour
80g brown rice flour
20g ground almonds
120g light muscovado sugar
120g soft butter
1 tsp mixed spice
25g black treacle
2 eggs

Feeding
20ml Brandy

Method
Place the raisins and sultanas into a bowl. Chop the cherries into quarters and add to the bowl. Chop the apricots and dried apple into pieces the size of the sultanas and add to the bowl.
Add the zest of the lemon and orange.
Drizzle over the Brandy and stir to coat. Cover with cling film and leave for at least 24 hours in a cool place to allow the fruit to plump up and absorb the Brandy.

To make the cake

Lightly grease a 6.5inch/17cm deep round spring form tin. Grease the tin well and line the base greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 140C.
Make sure your butter is soft, then weigh all the cake ingredients, expect the pre soaked fruit into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined.
Add the pre soaked fruit, including any remaining juices and fold together using a spatula.
Spread the mix into the tin, creating a dip in the middle to allow for doming in the oven. Press down gently.
Bake in the oven for 2hours 10minutes until browned and quite firm to the touch.
Allow to cool in the tin for 1 hour before pricking the surface of the cake and drizzling over 20ml of Brandy. Cover the cake and leave to cool in the tin before unmolding. Leave the greaseproof paper on the base and wrap the cake tightly in clingfilm and leave to mature for at least two weeks. Feed again with another 15ml of Brandy one week later. A week before Christmas, trim the top of the cake into a level surface and brush with a little more brandy before adding a layer of marzipan and covering in fondant and decorating. Also tastes great un-iced if desired.
Makes 1 x 6.5inch/17cm cake

The Cake Slice November 2010: Cinnamon Pudding Cake (GF)

I was delighted when this cake won the vote to be Novembers cake. I adore cinnamon in any form and the idea of using it in a hot pudding cake sounded perfect for the cold chilly winter days we have been having. This pudding cake takes the form of a self saucing pudding. It’s a cinnamon spiced cake that has a thin caramel sauce poured all over the top of the batter before being baked in the oven. During the baking process, the sauce seeps down to the base of the pan and thickens up into a thick and gooey caramel with the cinnamon sponge on top – magic!

I was a little dubious that this would work as described as my caramel sauce was very thin and liquidly when I poured it over the cake batter, so much so that it completely drowned the cake mix. However, the cake worked its magic in the oven and the golden cinnamon sponge emerged from beneath and baked into a lovely golden cake, complete with a crisp crackly crust – delicious.

My cake batter took on a slightly golden colour due to the flour I used. I am still experimenting with different gluten free flours and for this cake I used predominantly gram flour (chickpea flour) and just a little maize and tapioca flour. Gram flour is used mostly in Indian cooking, either as a thickener or in the batter used to make onion bhajee’s. It has a soft chalky feel to it, similar to cornflour and quite a savoury taste. I wouldn’t recommend it for normal sweet cake batters, but as this cake was so sweet and had all the gooey caramel sauce I felt it could take it.

The finished cake looked and smelt wonderful but the problems started when it came to turn the cake out. The recipe suggested inverting the cake onto a plate so that the caramel sauce at the base became the top of the cake. When I attempted this my caramel sauce was so thick and gooey that it stuck the cake to the pan, causing it to brake and come away in chunks instead of turning out cleanly. Well, darn.

Personally I think it would have been far better to serve the cake straight from the pan and keep it as a pudding with the sauce underneath, but hay ho, I’ll know to do this next time.

Despite its rather poor appearance it tasted fabulous when still hot out the oven. The cake was soft and moist with the cinnamon flavour coming through nicely. I have said in the past that I am not a fan of caramel, but this caramel was divine! I suspect it was because it was made with brown sugar, rather than burnt white sugar which came it a far nicer subtle caramel overtone. When paired with the hot cinnamon cake it was gorgeous.

With my delicious yet broken cake I decided to do away with attempting to cut a neat and even little square, which was what I had intended to do, and instead dug straight in with my fork. It may not have been pretty but when you have hot spiced cake with gooey caramel sauce who’s going to complain? Even my fork knew what to do – Eat Me!

I found the cake tended to get a little dry when cold, but a short burst in the microwave softened the caramel and had it back to being a soft and moist cake once more. As its called ‘Pudding Cake’ then I feel serving it warm is as it is intended to be. I’d make this cake again, but I think its best eaten the day, if not the minute its baked and next time I’ll serve it straight from the pan rather than trying to turn it out!

Click here to see The Cake Slice blogroll.

Cinnamon Pudding Cake (gluten free)
(Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)
For the Caramel Topping

200g light brown sugar
170ml water
15g unsalted butter
½ tsp salt

For the Cake
240g plain flour (OR, 200g gram/chickpea flour & 50g maize/tapioca flour mix)
2 tsp GF baking powder
2½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
30g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar (I only used 100g)
225ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method – Topping
Heat the oven to 180C. Spray the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Combine the brown sugar, water, butter and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally, then set aside to cool.

Method – Cake
Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
With the mixer on medium-low speed, add a third of the flour mixture to the bowl. Add half of the milk and the vanilla. Add another third of the flour, followed by the remaining milk and the rest of the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Scrape the batter onto the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Pour the topping over the batter (the pan will be very full). Carefully transfer the pan to the oven and bake until set, 45 minutes.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, invert it onto a large rimmed serving platter and serve warm.
Let any leftover cake cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 day or in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Notes & Alterations

On recommendations of other bakers I stirred 3tbsp of the syrup through the cake batter before placing it in the tin and I baked the cake in a 9inch pan and reduced the baking time by 10 minutes. This helped keep it moist as some early bakers had commented the cake was dry when baked for the full amount.
I only left my cake in the pan for 5 minutes only before trying to turn it out, but the caramel had already began to set and my cake stuck and broke. I would recommended turning it out of the pan immediately after removing from the oven while the caramel is still hot and runny.

The Cake Slice October 2010: Pumpkin (Sweet Potato) Chocolate Chip Pound Cake (GF)

I’m so excited to be able to reveal that the new cake book that The Cake Slice bakers will be baking from for the next year is…. Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman! It’s a fantastic looking book and absolutely full of all sorts of different types and styles of cakes – not just layer cakes, but loaf cakes, bundt cakes and snacking cakes to name but a few. If they are half as good as this months debut cake then we are going to be in for a treat!

The winning cake from our new cake book was a pumpkin chocolate chip loaf cake, which I was delighted about considering how seasonal it is. The recipe calls for canned pumpkin puree, but it is near impossible to find pumpkin puree in this country and so I substituted this with some pureed sweet potato. This worked really well and resulted in a deliciously moist and tender cake that had a faint pleasing orange colour.

I actually made this cake just a few days after discovering I had to go gluten free and so it was my very first attempt at baking. I decided to substitute the flour for Buckwheat flour, which despite its name is gluten free. This has a subtle nutty grassy flavour to it, similar to rye flour, and a natural sweetness that I thought would go well with the chocolate chips and sweet potato elements of the cake.

The recipe made a lot of cake mix and I was worried there would be too much for the tin but it baked up fine, tall and puffy with a long crack down one side which I actually think improved the appearance as it gave a tempting insight into the melty chocolate chips hidden within.

I absolutely loved the results and would never have guessed it was gluten free. It was light, soft and springy and wonderfully moist. I loved the dark chocolate chips studded throughout the cake which seemed to stay permanently soft and slightly gooey after baking. I couldn’t stop eating it and bizarrely it tasted really good when dipped into hot strong coffee.

Unfortunately the rest of my family had mixed results to this cake. My mum ate it and said it was ok, but she didn’t like the grassy note from the buckwheat. My dad was not a fan but he likes more traditional flavours and was highly confused by the combination of spices, sweet potato and chocolate chips in a cake. However, my lovely grandmother (who shares/shared my tastes for rye breads and other assorted grains) adored the cake as much as I did. She even said that if that’s what gluten free cake tasted like then she wouldn’t mind binning wheat altogether – I love you grandma!

I know that other members of the group loved this cake too, so gluten free or not, this autumnal cake is perfect for this time of year and definitely worth making. Click to see the Cake Slice blogroll.

Pumpkin (Sweet Potato) Chocolate Chip Pound Cake (GF)(Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Ingredients

210g plain flour (I used Doves buckwheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground cloves

Pinch nutmeg

100g unsalted butter, softened

280g caster sugar

3 eggs

200g pumpkin puree (I used pureed sweet potato*)

1 tsp vanilla extract

75ml milk

75g dark chocolate chips

75g chopped walnuts (I’d run out of these)

MethodHeat the oven to 180C. Coat the inside of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with flour.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary.

With the mixer on medium low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the pumpkin puree (see note below) and vanilla. Stir in the milk.

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, a third at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, 55 minutes to 1 hour. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on a rack to cool completely.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic for up to 1 week.

Makes one 9 by 5 inch loaf cake

Note* It’s very hard to find pumpkin puree in the UK, so I substituted this with homemade sweet potato puree. Simply cut a large sweet potato in half, place in a bowl and add 2tbsp water. Cover the top with clingfilm and microwave on high for 7 minutes until the flesh is soft. Scoop out the flesh and mash with a potato masher (you won’t need to add any liquid or butter) and use as above.

Blackberry & Lime Cake with Walnut Streusel Topping

I made this cake a couple of weeks ago for my grandads birthday. I had just been blackberrying and so was primed with lots of fresh berries to use. I decided to pair them with some lime zest as I think this helps bring out the berries natural zing and sweetness. The amount of lime zest stated in the recipe may seem small, but it’s amazing how much flavour this small amount provides, it really was quite apparent in the finished cake.

It’s an unusual cake in that when it comes to mixing in the flour you are actually after a slightly lumpy batter as over mixing it will result in a dense heavy cake. In this respect it’s more like a muffin mix where the little lumps of flour help give the crumb its airy texture and springiness. My grandad is also diabetic (diet controlled) so I liked the fact that the recipe didn’t contain too much sugar and that it made use of a nutty streusel topping instead of a buttercream or frosting.

The streusel topping bakes into a delicious crispy crumbly topping and the added nuts get a gentle toasting making them even more flavoursome and nutty. The cake itself was studded with the blackberries which were full of flavour and added little pockets of bright purple juiciness. It was delicious when served slightly warm – we even reheated slices the next day in the microwave, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of afternoon tea.

Blackberry & Lime Cake with Walnut Streusel Topping

(Recipe adapted from Delia Smith)

Cake

250g blackberries
Zest of ½ lime
275g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
75g caster sugar
170ml milk
110g butter

Streusel

75g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
25g butter
50g Demerara sugar
50g walnuts
1 tbsp water

Method – Streusel Topping

Place the flour, baking powder and butter into a bowl. Use the tips of your fingers to rub the butter into the flour, lifting it up and letting the mix fall back into the bowl. Continue until you have no large lumps of butter left and the flour is starting to look like crumbs.
Chop the walnuts into small chunks and mix through the flour mixture along with the sugar. Add the water and rub briefly so the mix forms little into little clumps. Set aside until required.

Blackberry Lime Cake

Preheat the oven to 190C. Grease a deep 8inch springform tin and line the base with baking paper.
Whisk the eggs, sugar and milk together until combined and just starting to look foamy. Melt the butter until liquid, then pour into the egg mix and briefly whisk again.
Sift the flour and baking powder over the top and add the salt and lime zest. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon in a folding motion until no flour streaks remain – it should look lumpy – this is ok – don’t try and beat them out!
Add the blackberries and gently fold them in, don’t mix too much or they will break down, but a few purple streaks are quite pretty.
Pour the cake batter into the tin and scatter over the streusel topping.
Bake in the oven for 1 hour until the top is deep golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for 30 minutes before removing from the tin and leaving to cool to room temperature.
Delicious served still warm with cream or crème fraiche
Serves 8-10

The Cake Slice September 2010: Fresh Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

This cake was particularly special this month as not only did it feature apples – one of my all time favourite foods, but it is also the last cake that The Cake Slice group is baking from our currant cake book - Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. We have been baking from this book for the past year which means next month we will start baking from an exciting new cake book!! As a result we are now accepting new members, so if you are interested in joining The Cake Slice and baking with us then please see the end of this post for details.

Anyway, back to this month’s apple cake. This cake turned out to be the best cake we have made all year – it was divine, the perfect cake to end with on a high note. It consists of a thick glossy batter that it liberally studded with chunks of fresh apple and walnuts which add a wonderful moistness and texture. A brown sugar fudge-like glaze is then poured over the still hot cake and left to absorb and set into a delicate toffee flavoured sugary crust. The cake is then served in generous squares straight from the pan – delicious!

I was tempted to add some cinnamon to the mix as I always feel this should be the natural accompaniment to anything containing apples, but I managed to restrain myself and I’m glad I did. Although the ingredients look fairly simple, this allowed the nuts and apples to really shine through and be the star flavours. I used fresh apples, picked from a friends garden. They were quite sharp and tangy when raw but mellow and softened beautifully in this cake and were the perfect contrast to the sweet sugary topping. I was also surprised at how much flavour the walnuts contributed and it was wonderful to suddenly bite down on a little nugget of one, hidden amongst the light cake and squishy apple pieces.

The batter looks a little strange in its raw state, it was a little gloopy and sticky and reminded me of a choux pastry batter. I was a little dubious it would work but it baked into a lovely textured moist cake. Some of the other bakers had said it was a little oily so I replaced some of the oil stated below with water and this worked well and I didn’t find the cake greasy at all. I also reduced the sugar quite considerably as I didn’t want it too sweet, especially as it had the sweet sugar glaze on top. Even then I still found the cake sweet but the sharp apples balanced it out nicely.

I can’t recommend this cake enough, everyone who tasted it loved it and if you’re an apple fan then I’m sure you’d love it too. Click to see our blogroll for everyone else’s apple cakes.

Fresh Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

(Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)

Fresh Apple Cake

360g plain flour

450g caster sugar (I used 300g)

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

330ml vegetable oil (I used 250ml oil & 80ml water)

2 tsp vanilla extract

450g finely chopped, peeled & cored apples (5-6 apples)

115g coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

Brown Sugar Glaze

225g light brown sugar

75g butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp evaporated or regular milk

Method – Fresh Apple Cake

Heat the oven to 180C. Grease a 13 x 9 inch pan or two 8-9 inch cake pans. (I used a 13x7 inch pan and got a deeper cake.)

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Stir with a fork to mix everything together well.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a mixer at low speed until pale yellow and foamy. Add the oil and vanilla and beat well. Stir in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon and continue stirring the batter just until the flour disappears. Add the apples and nuts, stir to mix them into the batter until fairly uniform. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake is golden brown, springs back when touched lightly near the centre and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Place the cake (still in the pans) on a wire rack and spoon over the glaze while still hot.

Method - Brown Sugar Glaze

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Then cook for 3-5 minutes.

To Finish

Spoon the hot glaze all over the hot-from-the-oven cake. Let the glazed cake cool completely before serving straight from the pan.

Makes one 13x9inch sheet cake or two 8-9inch round cakes

New Cake Slice Members: Now onto the exciting bit! If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice group and baking delicious cakes with us for the next year than please email me your name, blog name and blog URL to ‘appleandspice[AT]hotmail.co.uk’ with ‘Cake Slice Member’ as the subject and I will contact you with the details of how to join us! You have until October 20^th to sign up.