Simple wholemeal apple cake – moist wholemeal cake filled with fresh apple and spices; easy to make and the perfect mid-morning or afternoon snack.
As much as I enjoy making towering, intricately decorated layer cakes, the cakes that I most enjoy eating, and crave most often, are generally a far simpler affair. The kind of cakes that aren’t too pretty to look at, but you feel much less guilty about eating a massive wodge of for a mid-morning snack.
I had been craving apple cake for a couple of weeks and when the tree in the garden yielded a few ready-to-pick apples that weren’t great for eating fresh, but were good for cooking with, I finally got round to satisfying the craving with this simple wholemeal apple cake.
This is a moist cake filled with chunks of fresh, tangy apple; the wholemeal flour gives it a hearty texture and the demarera sugar on top lends a nice crunch.
It is very easy to make, only uses one bowl and there is no need to use an electric mixer; the butter is rubbed into the dry ingredients, as if you were making pastry, then the rest of the ingredients are simply stirred in with a spatula.
It keeps well in an airtight container (though only lasted two days in our house) and makes a lovely snack, or even breakfast. To make it a little more indulgent it could be served warm with custard or cream, though I like it best as is, with a big mug of tea.
Simple Wholemeal Apple Cake Recipe:
Simple Wholemeal Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 350 g sharp eating apples such as cox unprepared weight, 12oz/3 medium
- 225 g self-raising wholemeal flour 8oz
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 115 g butter 1 stick, firm but not fridge cold, cubed
- 115 g light brown soft sugar 2/3 cup
- 1 large egg beaten
- 110 ml milk 1/3 + 1/8 cup, more if needed
- 1 1/2 tbsp demarera sugar
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease an 18cm/7in round deep cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
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Peel, core and dice the apples, set aside. Mix together the flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice in a large bowl;add the butter and rub in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles course sand and no chunks of butter remain.
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Stir in the sugar, then the apples. Mix in the egg followed by the milk. The mixture should be quite stiff but if it seems dry add a little more milk until it reaches a reluctant dropping consistency.
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Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level. bake for about 1 hour, but start checking for doneness after 45 minutes; it should be firm and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Cover loosely with foil partway through baking if the top begins to darken too much.
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Remove the cake from the oven and immediately sprinkle with demarera sugar. leave to cool in the tin for half an hour or so then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
I am sharing this with Fiesta Friday hosted by Foodbod and O Blog Off, Foodie FriDIY and Foodie Friends Friday
Miranda
October 18, 2016 at 6:31 pmUsing wholemeal flour is such an interesting idea, I’ll definitely have to try it out! The cake sounds so delicious!
hannahhossack
October 19, 2016 at 11:02 amThank you! The wholemeal flour makes the cake feel like more of a legitimate snack rather than an indulgent cake (so you can have two slices 😛 )
Vivabop
October 19, 2016 at 9:08 pmThis looks like such yummy comfort food, I am practically drooling after looking at all your beautiful images. I have a friend with an abundance of cooking apples from the trees in her garden, so I am thinking that this might be the recipe to use some of them up!
hannahhossack
October 31, 2016 at 11:08 amI used apples from the tree in my garden for the cake, so it’s perfect for using up home-grown fruit!
Christina Nifong
October 21, 2016 at 1:15 pmJust made a very similar apple cake last night. Love the whole grains in this one. Will have to give it a go!
hannahhossack
October 31, 2016 at 11:06 amThanks Christina, I’m sure you’ll love it!
Charlie @ The Kitchen Shed
October 24, 2016 at 6:41 pmWholemeal Cake! YUM!! I am a lover of all things wholemeal and cake is another of my all time favourite foods. This looks so delish, perfect for this autumnal weather.
hannahhossack
October 31, 2016 at 11:03 amThanks Charlie 🙂 It’s the perfect cake for autumn, and the wholemeal and apple make it feel almost healthy (while still being totally delicious!)
Kathy
December 16, 2016 at 5:52 pmI was in my kitchen cooking sunday roast / reading blogs / thinking what’s for pudding when I saw your post and as I have a apples from my garden I made this cake and I served it with custard from a tin. It was delicious , thank you for sharing at the right time !