Happy Baking- Apple Tray Bake

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...Well I'm glad it doesn't, other wise I wouldn't of had a chance to bake this beauty!

My housemates girlfriend came to stay last weekend, and bought with her some cooking apples from her dads garden because she thought I would be able to bake something with them! :) (She's too cute!)

I've never actually baked anything with apples in before, that was always left to my Mum (Crumbles and pies were a speciality) so I took to the internet to try and find a recipe that took my fancy. I wanted something cakey, because my motto is that you can never have too much cake. During my searching I stumbled upon a recipe on the BBC Goodfood website for a Dorset Apple Tray Bake (The recipe can be found here) so I thought I would give it a whirl!

I'm really happy with the result, and I really like the sharpness of the apples in lemon juice against the sweet sponge. Yum.

If you fancy it too, then here's what you're going to need to do...

Makes 15 Squares

Ingredients-
450g Cooking Apples
Lemon Juice (Roughly half a lemons worth)
225g Unsalted Butter- Softened
180g Caster Sugar
50g Soft Brown Sugar
50g Dark Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
350g Plain Flour
5 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Caster Sugar, dark brown sugar, and cinnamon to sprinkle on top- Optional! 

Method-

1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray approximately 8 inches x 12 inches with baking parchment.  (I used a deep brownie pan that was this size- The mixture does rise quite a bit when it's baked so try to use a deep tray if you can. If you don't have a deep tray then just leave the baking parchment sticking upwards and it should be fine)

2) Peel and core your apples and then thinly slice them so they are roughly the same thickness. Place them in a bowl and cover with the lemon juice, then put to one side.

3) Put the butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, flour and baking powder into a bowl (You'll need a large one) and mix together until it all comes together and there are no lumps. 

4) Take half the mixture and spread it out evenly onto the bottom of your lined tin.

5) Take half the sliced apples and arrange them flat over the cake mixture so as much of the mixture is covered as possible.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 so you have 4 layers- 2 of cake and 2 of apple. 

7) Mix roughly a tablespoon of caster sugar, a tablespoon of dark brown sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon together in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the top of the cake.

8) Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the top of the cake in a lovely golden brown.- Then let it cool in the tray for 10-15 minutes, remove from the tin and enjoy a slice! (Check on your cake after 30-35 minutes- If the top of the cake is quite dark but the inside isn't cooked properly then loosely cover the top with a piece of foil)