Easy apple tart (cake) with raisins

Apple cake is a traditional South African confection and with this recipe, I’ve added plumped-up raisins for extra deliciousness. The caramel cream sauce soaks into the cake as it comes out of the oven giving it a luscious glossy coating. This cake hovers between tart and cake as so many apples are packed into the batter and this is a quick and easy dessert to whip up in one bowl.

As much as it’s tempting to add cinnamon or other spices to this apple tart, I like to keep it simple for nostalgic reasons.

*Cooks notes and substitutions:

If you don’t have pie apple slices, peel, core, and cut 2 large baking apples into 8 wedges and poach in a little water, sugar with a cinnamon stick for 8 – 19 minutes then drain and cool. Traditional recipes call a tin of evapourated milk (Ideal milk) so you could use that instead of cream. I’m sure coconut cream would also be lovely adding a tropical flavour. If you don’t have self-raising flour – use cake or all-purpose flour and one teaspoon of baking powder. A more traditional apple cake/tart recipe would normally use white sugar in the sauce, but I like to use brown sugar such as Muscovado or demerara which gives the cake a caramel flavour.

I have decreased the sugar in both the cake and the sauce from a more traditional South African recipe because I find it sweet enough and the raisins add additional sweetness.

Recipe – makes one tart/cake – serves 6 – 8

Prep Time:10

Cook Time:45

Ingredients

Cake / tart:

½ cup raisins or sultanas
¾ cup / 175gm sugar
3 Tbs / 35gms melted butter
2 large free-range eggs
Pinch of salt
1 cup / 250ml / 170gm self-raising flour
¼ cup / 60ml milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 x 385gm pie apple slices 13.5ounces

Sauce:

½ cup muscovado sugar
250 ml / 1 cup cream or evapourated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract or essence

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
Pour boiling hot water over the raisins and allow to soak for 15 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.
In a large bowl whisk the sugar, melted butter, eggs, and salt until well combined.
Add the flour, milk, and vanilla and mix again until you have a smooth batter. Fold through the soaked raisins.
Grease a roughly 25cm / 9.5ich tart dish with butter or spray with non-stick cooking spray *you could also use a 20cm / 8ich cake pan. Tip the batter into the dish and spread the batter out evenly. Gently press all the apple slices into the dish and bake in for 45 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch. If necessary and to prevent over-browning, loosely cover a piece of tin foil over the tart from about halfway through the baking time.
While the tart is baking make the sauce by putting all the ingredients into a small pot and bringing it to a gentle boil. Keep a close eye as this could spill over.
As the apple tart comes out of the oven, pour the hot sauce over and allow it to soak through. Poke the cake in a few places and lift up the edges to help the sauce seep into the sponge.
Allow to cool and serve at room temperature as is or with additional whipped cream or ice cream.

Author: Sam Linsell

*This recipe was developed for Raisins of South Africa