Michelle Darmody: This sunken apple traybake is the perfect after-dinner treat

Cooking apples enjoy a long growing season in Ireland, most of the trees are a variety known as Brambley’s Seedling. 

This cake is made up of sticky, soft apple slices embedded within a rich butter sponge, simple and delicious. 

This is a great after-dinner treat or an afternoon pick-me-up. Traybakes like this are particularly handy as the squares of buttery goodness can be popped into a lunchbox, or packed into a backpack, alongside a flask of tea, when out for a long stroll.

Cooking apples are very good value for money and are great to bake with as they hold their shape and flavour. I find that firmness works best in this cake as you need a bit of shape and bite to the pieces of apple; if they are too mushy, it makes the cake more difficult to slice and transport. 

Cooking apples enjoy a long growing season in Ireland, most of the trees are a variety known as Brambley’s Seedling. 

If they are not grown in a particular month of the year, you will still find them in shops as they are stored very well by growers and released to the shops as needed. They are generally much larger in size than an eating apple and have pale yellowish skin. I love the tartness they add to baking and usually throw a few into the shopping basket.

How to Bake Sunken Apple Traybake

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

Traybakes like this are particularly handy as the squares of buttery goodness can be popped into a lunchbox, or packed into a backpack, alongside a flask of tea, when out for a long stroll.

Servings

9

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 45 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 225g soft butter

• 210g light muscovado sugar

• 4 eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla

• zest 1 orange

• 350g self-raising flour

• 450g cooking apples, cored, peeled and sliced

• 1 tbsp maple syrup

Method

1. Line a square 9-inch cake tin with parchment.

2. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Lightly whisk the eggs, vanilla and zest together.

5. Add the egg mixture a third at a time to the butter mixture until combined.

6. Stir in the flour until it forms a smooth batter.

7. Toss the apple slices in the maple syrup.

8. Sprinkle the apple slices over the sponge.

9. Place into the centre of the oven.

10. Bake for 45 minutes until the sponge is golden and risen and the apples are soft.

11. Allow to cool in the tin until cool enough to handle then transfer onto a wire rack.

Baker's tips

You will notice the muscovado sugar is almost sticky compared to golden caster sugar. This is because it is less refined and still contains a percentage of molasses. This makes it excellent for use in the recipe, where you want an almost toffee-like flavour throughout the cake to enhance the apple pieces. If you need to substitute the muscovado sugar for caster sugar, the cake will still be nice but it will lose some of its richness and chewy texture. Muscovado is used in gingerbread, for example, to give it its dense, sticky texture which is what you are working towards here as well.

When creaming butter and muscovado sugar, you still want to add lots of air and lightness. The mixture will not, however, become as pale in colour as it would when using caster sugar as the muscovado adds a richness in colour and a smoother texture.

If you find the cake mixture begins to curdle when you are adding the eggs to the creamed butter, add a half a tablespoon of flour to help it combine. It is best to add the majority of the flour after the eggs, as the more you stir flour, the tougher your cake batter will become. A light mix in at the end to ensure it is combined will suffice.

You can use a percentage of spelt flour to add bite and fibre to the traybake. Use 50g of spelt in place of 50g of the self-raising flour.

Slivered almonds can be sprinkled on top of this traybake just before it goes into the oven; they add a lovely crunch to the top.

This cake will store for about three days in an airtight container. It will freeze in slices if you like but it can be a little sticky when it is defrosted.

Three delicious variations

Cherry and vanilla traybake

I actually use a tin of cherries for this recipe if I do not have access to fresh ones. Replace the apple with a 420g can of cherries, completely drained, and sprinkle over the sponge as you would with the same weight of fresh de-stoned cherries.

Dried fruit and nut apple cake traybake

To increase the crunch and texture of the cake, you can add a handful of nuts and dried fruits. I use 80g of golden raisins and 100g of mixed nuts, roughly chopped, added to the batter just after you add the flour. 

This version is improved with the addition of some spices, such as a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of mixed cake spice.

Raspberry and elderflower traybake

Sprinkling fresh raspberries over this butter sponge, replacing the apples, will give you a very tasty tray bake. 

The batter is quite wet already so you will need to be sparing with the elderflower cordial if you are using it. Just two teaspoons into the batter will suffice.