Apple Loaf Cake

• 125g unsalted butter
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 2 large free-range eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 225g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100ml milk
• 3 small jazz apples
• 70g demerara sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325ºF/gas 3.

Beat together your butter and sugar until soft and fluffy (ideally in an electric mixer or with a hand whisk). Add one egg at a time and your vanilla bean paste.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold until combined. Add the milk to loosen into a soft batter.

Peel, core and chop your apples into small cubes and add two thirds to your batter. Set the rest aside.

Mix your sugar and your cinnamon together and set aside.

Grease and line a loaf tin and pour in half your batter. Sprinkle over half the demerara mix. Add on the rest of your batter, scatter over your remaining apples and finish with the rest of the cinnamon and demerara mix.

Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. If your top starts to catch just cover loosely with some tin foil and continue to bake until cooked through.

Allow 10 minutes to cool before slicing and serving with a lovely cup of tea!

I first made this style of apple loaf cake back in 2016 for my Nan’s birthday. I followed ‘The Foodie’s Way‘ who ingeniously put a layer of cinnamon sugar in the middle of the loaf cake. A few tweaks and lots more apples along the way and it remains one of my absolute favoruite bakes.