Norwegian apple cake - nom!

Hello Friends,
What a fab autumn day it's been today. A lovely walk at Creswell Crags, now back to light our pumpkin, fill a glass & settle in to celebrate Samhain night. 

I wanted to bake something for today which used some of our own fruit, so I chose Norwegian Apple Cake. I've been baking this cake since I was about 14 years old. Everyone who tries it says how nice it is, so I thought I'd share the recipe. It's from an ancient cookery book, now very much defunct, which I no longer own, but I pretty much know this recipe by heart. If you've got a few nice sharp-tasting apples handy, give it a go. You do need a reasonably deep rectangular tin. The very shallow ones used for tray-bakes are not deep enough. You need the sort of tin you might make a Yorkshire pudding in.

This was the view from our kitchen window as I was baking mine. A lot of leaf-raking to be done this week, particularly as Albert Whiskers is starting to trail them in on route to the fridge. Anyway, on to the cakeypoo:

Norwegian Apple Cake

2 eggs
9oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
1/4 pint milk
6.5 oz plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
4 nice sharp-tasting apples (3 will be enough if they are the big Bramleys)

Grease & lightly flour a deep rectangular baking or roasting tin (approx. 20 x 30cms). Pre-heat oven to Gas 6. Put 1 oz of the sugar aside on a saucer. 
Put the milk & butter into a small pan & gently melt, then start bringing it to the boil.
While it's heating, crack the eggs into a bowl, add 8 oz of the sugar & whisk together till pale & thick. The mixture needs to be thick enough to leave a trail when you lift the whisk. 
Keep the whisk handy & finish bringing the milk & butter mixture to the boil. 
Now get the electric whisk going with one hand & with the other, add the buttery milk STILL BOILING HOT in a careful steady stream into the sugar & eggs, while you whisk it in. 
Sieve the flour & baking powder swiftly into the mixture & carefully but thoroughly fold it in with a spatula. 
Pour it into your greased & floured tin. 
Now, working quickly, peel & core the apples, quarter them, then slice quite thinly. 
Arrange the apple slices in rows across the top of the mixture. You should have plenty, so overlap them a little if you want, to fit them all on.
Sprinkle the surface with the reserved 1 oz of caster sugar.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 25 mins until well-risen & golden brown. The sugary top shouldn't 'catch', but if it looks like it's going too dark, cover it with a piece of baking parchment for the last little bit of cooking time. (This is a moist cake because of all the apple, but do give it a little poke in the centre, just to check the batter is not still liquid. If this happens, just give it another 5 mins). 
Leave it to cool in the tin before cutting into slices (makes about 10 'normal' size or 8 if one of the eaters is my husband). Before serving, sift a little icing sugar on top or a sprinkle of caster sugar. 
It's nice on its own, but its niceness is elevated further by a blob of clotted cream.

This is an easy cake to make. It's a runny mixture, so don't start worrying & thinking you've done it wrong. It's more like the consistency of pancake batter than normal cake mixture. Just stick with it & you'll soon be tucking into a lush warm slice of Autumn. Enjoy!

Well,  it will soon be time to sit down with a little bowl of these spicy roasted pumpkin seeds at my side, candles lit, ready to watch The Wicker Man  - the original, of course!

Autumn blessings to you all from The People & Cats Republic,
C x