Apple and lemon slices

Using some of the Bramley apples my neighbour had given me from her garden, and some of my own 'Red Jonathan' dessert apples (as featured in Pork with Apples and Cider, a previous blog recipe), I made a round apple and lemon cake recently as a thank you to some of my fellow allotmenteers who were spending a morning hedge-trimming around the allotment site. But afterwards it occurred to me that the recipe would make a great traybake to serve in smaller slices too, so I made it again and it turned out really well. Here's how I made it.

Apple and lemon slices

1 cooking apple
2 eating apples
125g butter
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch mixed spice
125g soft light brown sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
half tsp vanilla extract
Runny honey

Line the base of a traybake tin, then peel and core the cooking apple and chop into rough dice. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips or whizz in the food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, baking powder, mixed spice, lemon zest and chopped apple, then stir in the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Spoon into the tin and level the surface - don't worry that it looks very dry at this stage as the apples will cook down and add plenty of moisture. Lastly, slice the eating apples, removing the core as you go, and arrange them on top. (I do this at the last minute so that the slices don't have a chance to go brown before they go in the oven). Bake at 160C (fan oven) for 30-40 minutes until nicely browned and firm to the touch. Brush with runny honey as soon as it comes out of the oven, to give the apples on top an attractive sheen. Cool on a wire rack then cut into slices.

(Makes about 12 slices)

COOKS' PLOT TIP: To make this as a cake, rather than as a traybake, use the same quantities and bake in a 23cm round, loose-bottomed cake tin for about 40 mins 

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