A treasure from my Christmas Special visit to Austria!

Ingredients

  • 110g butter plus extra for greasing
  • 150g soft light brown sugar
  • 2 large free range eggs
  • 210g plain flour, sifted
  • 1tbsp baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 300g peeled, cored and sliced cooking apple (shouldn't be more than one large one)
  • 50g flaked almonds
  • 3 tblsp apple or apricot jam

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, grease and line a 20cm cake tin with a removable base.
  2. With an electric hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until they are incorporated.
  4. Fold through the flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom and cinnamon until you have a thick cake batter.
  5. Stir through the apple and pour the batter into the cake tin.
  6. The batter will be thick, so use a spatula to spread across the base of the tin.
  7. Spread the almonds on top of the cake and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Cover with tin foil if the almonds brown too much.
  8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  9. As the cake is cooling, heat the jam in a saucepan until runny and brush over top of the cake.