Dorset Apple Cake

Traditional English apple cake with brown sugar, cinnamon and clotted cream

Origin: Dorset, England

From the journey of Apple.

Dorset Apple Cake is the most honest expression of English apple baking: fresh chunks of Bramley or Cox's folded into a simple rubbed-in sponge, topped with demerara sugar for a crunch, eaten warm from the oven with clotted cream. The recipe has been made in farmhouse kitchens across Somerset and Dorset for centuries, varying only in the ratio of apple to batter. Roman soldiers brought apple cultivation to Britain in the 1st century CE, but it is the Norman Conquest of 1066 that transformed English apple culture: William's followers arrived from Normandy with orchard-planting traditions that turned Somerset and Herefordshire into the heartland of English cider and apple cooking. The Bramley's Seedling, discovered in a Nottinghamshire cottage garden in 1809, and Cox's Orange Pippin, raised in Buckinghamshire in 1825, are England's two great gifts to apple culture, and both appear in this cake.

Ingredients

Cake

225 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp fine sea salt
115 g cold unsalted butter, cubed
115 g light brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
500 g Bramley or Cox's apples (about 3 medium), peeled, cored and cut into 1.5 cm chunks
1 lemon, zest only

Topping

2 tbsp demerara sugar

To Serve

clotted cream or crème fraîche, to serve
icing sugar, to dust

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas 4. Grease a 20 cm round cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into a large bowl. Add the cold cubed butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the brown sugar and lemon zest.
Make a well in the centre and add the beaten eggs, milk, and vanilla. Stir gently until just combined: a few flour streaks are fine at this stage.
Fold the apple chunks through the batter. The mixture will be thick and stiff: more apple held together by batter than a smooth batter with apple in it. This is correct.
Spoon into the prepared tin and level with the back of a wet spoon. Scatter the demerara sugar evenly over the top.
Bake for 45–55 minutes until deep golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre (avoiding an apple piece) comes out clean. If the top browns too quickly after 35 minutes, cover loosely with foil.
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve in thick wedges, warm, with clotted cream.

Notes

Bramley apples give the most classically tart result; Cox's Orange Pippin gives a more delicate, aromatic flavour. A mix of both is ideal. The cake keeps well wrapped for 3 days. For a richer version, replace 3 tablespoons of milk with double cream.

The Gastrographer

Name: Dorset Apple Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: England
Ingredients: 225 g self-raising flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; ¼ tsp fine sea salt; 115 g cold unsalted butter, cubed; 115 g light brown sugar; 2 large eggs, lightly beaten; 3 tbsp whole milk; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 500 g Bramley or Cox's apples (about 3 medium), peeled, cored and cut into 1.5 cm chunks; 1 lemon, zest only; 2 tbsp demerara sugar; clotted cream or crème fraîche, to serve; icing sugar, to dust

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control