A not quite traditional Dorset apple cake. It swaps caramel chocolate for the more normal raisins, but oh what a lush result this gives.
Best of British comes back to the South West this month from London and has now reached the county of Dorset. The first and if truth be told, only thing that came to mind when thinking about Dorset speciality food was Dorset Apple Cake. Strangely, with all of my cookery books I didn’t have a single recipe for this. So, I resorted to the net and came up with this winner – voted the Dorset National Dish in 2006 by Greg Coomer.
Dorset Apple Cake with Chocolate Caramel
Like many other people this year, I haven’t had nearly as many apples from my mother’s trees as normal, but I still have a few. I’d been mulling over an apple cake for a while and wanted to include a bar of Lindt Luscious Caramel in it. Easy peasy, I would adapt Greg’s cake of course. I made a larger quantity as I don’t have an 8″ cake mould, omitted the lemon peel, substituted chocolate for raisins and used cardamom sugar. I also substituted buckwheat for the specified cornflour and did my usual mix of flours. I also used, err, Cornish apples – shhhhh!
This is how I did it:
- Weighed out 10oz flour (4oz spelt, 4oz plain white, 2oz buckwheat) and sifted into a bowl with 2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda.
- Added 5oz cardamom (caster) sugar.
- Rubbed in 5oz unsalted butter until the mixture resembled breadcrumbs.
- Peeled, cored and diced 250g of tart apples (Cornish variety – label missing) stirring into the mixture to coat as I went along so the apples didn’t brown.
- Made a well in the centre and added 2 medium eggs and 2 tbsp milk.
- Stirred until all combined.
- Added a chopped 100g bar of Lindt Luscious Caramel and stirred in.
- Spooned into a 21cm cake mould.
- Cored and sliced one tart apple, but left the peel on.
- Drizzled over 1 tbsp lemon juice to stop the slices from browning, then arranged the slices on top of the cake.
- Scattered over 1 tbsp of soft brown sugar.
- Baked in the oven at 180C for 35 minutes.
Other Apple Cakes You Might Like
- Almond apple cider cake
- Irish apple cake
- Kale apple cake
- Sticky ginger apple cakes
- Toffee apple hazelnut cake
- Upside-down apple cake
Sharing
Best of British is sponsored by The Face of New World Appliances and hosted once again by Karen of Lavender and Lovage this month.
Johanna GGG says
caramel and apple is so perfect a combination and I just love this cake
Choclette says
Thanks Johanna, it was such a delicious combination, I shall be using it again.
laura@howtocookgoodfood says
I really love your replacing the raisins with a bar of luscious caramel chocolate in this wonderful Dorset apple cake. I am with you on that one and now need to go and buy a bar just to check out how good it must be. Again, I love the flours you have used. I have just bought my first ever spelt flour so will be putting it to good use very soon although I am finding it very hard to have any time to myself this week, including commenting on blogs….half term you see :))x
Choclette says
Glad you approve Laura, it was a particularly good combination. Good luck with the spelt. Hope you are enjoying half term, even if it is proving to be rather busy.
rita cooks italian says
What a great cake! I like the tip of stirring the apple slices into the mixture to coat so the apples don’t brown. The chocolate carmel gives the perfect finish!!
Choclette says
Thanks Rita, all I can say is the cake disappeared rather too rapidly!
Charlotte Charlotte'sKitchenDiary says
Another great recipe Choclette! I will forgive you for using Cornish apples ; ) It looks absolutely gorgeous!
Choclette says
Oh thanks Charlotte, I feel much better for that 😉
Katharine says
I love any kind of apple cake and yours looks perfect! I bet the addition of the chocolate really adds to the flavour too.
Choclette says
Thanks Katharine. Apple cake is just so right at this time of year. The chocolate is good, but it’s the caramel that really makes it.
Garden Tea Cakes and Me says
Now that’s what I call a cake, perfect for Autumn days with a hot cup of tea. Like your mum’s my apples trees have had a recovery year for fruit, which hopefully means a bounty crop come next year.
Angela
Choclette says
Thanks Angela, lets cross fingers and hope so.
helen says
ooh that looks lovely…my lot would have to have that with custard!
Choclette says
Yes Helen, custard would be lovely too.
Phil in the Kitchen says
I must confess that the first thing that I think of when I think about Dorset food is apple cake and, in my opinion, that’s no bad thing at all. I’ve never tried it with caramel chocolate, though. Sounds absolutely lovely.
Choclette says
That’s very true Phil, it’s hard to beat a good apple cake, but adding caramel chocolate does make it that little bit more special.
Miss C Flash says
Looks beautiful. Nothing quite beats an apple cake x
Choclette says
Thanks Miss C 🙂
Jo says
What a beautiful cake. I love the sound of adding caramel chocolate to the batter. Yummy!
Choclette says
Thanks Jo – I was thinking toffee apples and it really worked 🙂
Caroline says
That is definitely my sort of cake. I love the generosity of the apple slices and they’re really well arranged on the top. I can’t say I’d have thought of adding caramel chocolate (though that sounds pretty good on its own!) but I’d love to try this with raisins. Yum.
Choclette says
Thanks C, I really enjoyed having the different textures from the soft apple in the cake to the caramalised and slightly chewy apple on top. I’m sure this would be delicious with raisins too, but it did work well with that caramel chocolate 😉
The Caked Crusader says
That is a cake of rare beauty – I adore how apples turn when baked, soft but firm and so delicious
Choclette says
Thanks CC, I am always happy to see apple season come around.
mylittleitaliankitchen says
A cake impossible to resist: apple cake is one of the best ones and yours is just perfect. Ciao!
Choclette says
Thank you Alida, you are always very kind 🙂
belleau kitchen says
stunning cake!… love the apples on the top and the recipe sounds fab, I must have a go at this… and then to top it all off with that incredible caramel chocolate included in the cake… wow… need it, want it, must HAVE it!
Choclette says
You shall go to the ball!
Karen S Booth says
WOW! That is a STUNNER of a cake, and as Dorset Apple Cakes go, it is a BEAUTY! I have been working with caramal and chocolate today too…..for a secret TTT thing, but more about that later! LOVELY entry for Dorset and such a pretty cake too! Karen
Choclette says
Thank you Karen, that’s very kind. Now you are teasing – chocolate and caramel? Whaaaaaaaaaaat?
Chris says
With chocolate caramel … that is totally lovely. I know, that it is a good thing to post an apple cake for Best of British this month. 🙂
Choclette says
Thanks Chris. Just as well as it’s a good thing, because I think there might be a few apple cakes 😉
Suelle says
This looks really delicious, although I think I’d go back to adding raisins, as I don’t have your urge to add chocolate to everything! LOL!;)
Choclette says
Suelle, this cake would be excellent with raisins too I’m sure, but it wasn’t just any old chocolate, it was caramel chocolate which gave it a special toffee apple edge.
Chele says
That’s a cracking looking cake, and of course the addition of chocolate is genius on your behalf. I am craving apple cake now though …
Choclette says
The one problem with it Chele, is that it just didn’t last long enough. I can feel another one coming on 😉
Katie says
Looks a gorgeous cake and great idea to use caramel chocolate. Sounds delicious.
Choclette says
Thank you Katie, that’s high praise coming from the Queen of apple cakes 🙂
Les rêves d'une boulangère (Brittany) says
Gosh I love apple cakes but I’ve never added chocolate to them. Good idea!
Choclette says
In my rather, err, extensive experience, I’ve found chocolate chips / chunks work really well in apple cakes, much better than making the whole thing chocolate flavoured.