A number of weeks ago I made a large batch of mincemeat. Wanting to try some recipes to use it in, other than mince pies, I made this Apple Mincemeat Cake. It is adapted from a recipe for a pear and mincemeat crumble cake that I found on the BBC Good Food website. At the time I had apples to use up and as the mincemeat contains apples as well as dried fruit, I decided to give it a go. It turned out really well.
It’s a lovely moist cake and the texture of the crumbly streusel topping makes it different from any other cake that I have made before. I made one for my Brother and his family and he tells me that as well as eating slices of it cold they also warmed it up and ate it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream – I must try that next time I make it.
So, for any of you that are totally confused with what mincemeat is and why I would put it in a apple cake, I’ll explain. Firstly, to put your mind at rest, it doesn’t contain any meat. Even on my most experimental of baking days, meat and apple in a cake would be taking it too far.
Mincemeat is infact a very popular Christmas food in the UK which contains lots of dried fruit, spices, suet and alcohol. We put it in pastry cases (mince pies) and eat way too many of them over the festive period. I wrote a little bit about the supposed origins of mincemeat here and I plan to post a recipe for mince pies over the next couple of days. Watch this space!
For those of you that are looking for an alternative recipe for your mincemeat this Christmas, I really recommend this cake. It should keep for 4 – 5 days in an airtight tin or you can freeze it for up to a month.
Enjoy!
Apple Mincemeat Cake
- Prep Time: 30m
- Cook Time: 1h 30m
- Total Time: 2h
- Yield: 12 slices
- Category: Cakes
Ingredients
For the apples
- 4 medium sized apples (peeled, cored & cut into 1cm squares)
- 3 tablespoons superfine sugar
For the cake
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice or cinnamon (according to taste)
- 250 grams butter (2 sticks plus 1 tbsp)
- 250 grams superfine sugar (1 cup plus 1 tbsp)
- 5 eggs
- 100 grams ground almonds (3/4 cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 250 grams all purpose flour (2 cups)
- 6 tablespoons mincemeat
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140°C fan. Prepare a 20 cm round deep cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper. Set aside.
For the apples
- Peel and core the apples. Cut into cubes of approx 1cm square. Place in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Heat until the apples are tender and their is no water left in the pan. This will take 5 - 10 minutes. Sprinkle the mixed spice over the apples.
For the cake
- Using an electric whisk beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add 190g (1 2/3 cups) of the flour, baking powder, salt and eggs to the mix and beat until smooth and creamy.
- Using a metal spoon, gently fold the almonds into the mixture.
- Remove 90g (approx 3/4 cup) of the cake mixture and put in a separate bowl. Set aside for later.
- Place half of the remaining cake mix into your cake tin and layer with half of the apple chunks and 3 tbsp of mincemeat. Add the rest of the cake mix and spread gently. Top with the remaining apple and mincemeat.
- Add the remaining flour to the cake mix that you set aside and fold in gently with a spoon until you get a crumbly looking mixture. Add this to the top of the cake.
- Sprinkle the top with the remaining sugar.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 1 1/2 hours. After 1 hour place a sheet of foil over the top of the cake to prevent it from browning too much. The cake is done when it is golden brown and a sharp knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean..
- Cool the cake in the tin for 1o minutes or so then remove from the tin and place on a cooling rack. The cake keeps moist if wrapped and left in an airtight tin.
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