Apple Hazelnut Cake with Sultanas and Milk Chocolate Chips
A delicious moist apple hazelnut cake which is made extra scrumptious with the addition of brandy soaked sultanas and milk chocolate chips. Keeps well for a good few days.
Soak the sultanas in the brandy for at least a couple of hours, although overnight is better.
3 oz sultanas, 1 tbsp brandy
Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for a few minutes until lightly brown.
3 oz hazelnuts
Allow to cool then blitz in a food processor or blender. I use a coffee grinder. Don't worry if the nuts aren't ground to a fine powder, it's good to get some texture in the cake.
Peel, core and chop the apples
1 lb cooking apples
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
8 oz unsalted butter, 6 oz golden caster sugar
Beat in the eggs, one by one.
3 large eggs
Sieve in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir until just incorporated.
12 oz flour - half wholemeal, half plain, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, pinch sea salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Gently mix in the hazelnuts, followed by the apple pieces.
Stir in the sultanas and milk chocolate drops.
3 oz milk chocolate drops
Spoon into a 23cm round silicone cake mould or lined tin.
Slice, but don't peel the dessert apple and arrange the slices around the top of the cake.
1 dessert apple
Scatter the demerara sugar over the top.
2 tbsp demerara sugar
Bake for 45 mins in a preheated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4). Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake, if it comes out wet, you'll need to give the cake a few more minutes.
Allow the cake to cool for fifteen minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Either eat immediately or wrap in parchment paper and store in an airtight tin for up to five days.
Notes
Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They're approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.