Toffee Apple Cake/Pie/Pudding

 I bake for a living.  Kind of.  Bernie does my baking but, occasionally  I have to do it.  My favourite types of cakes though are the old school ones.  Puddings and tarts and tea cakes and the likes.  So, imagine, the collective delight of the Geraghty clan when I found this recipe.  I can't remember where I found it I just came across it today, scribbled on the back of a receipt.  I had an unpeeled apple left over from a wedding cake cake recipe so . ..  waste not want not and here you go. 

This is best when just out of the oven as the sauce goes deliciously toffeeee-ish and wowsers.  It's not pretty but it is delicious and a great way to use up the apples your friends give you.  (I, thankfully, have lots of friends with Bramley Apple trees in their back gardens).  Okay, it ain't pretty but so utterly delicious.  Damn but I wish I could find where I found the recipe so I could point you in the direction of the pretty picture.  

You'll need:

85g melted butter

140g self raising flour

100g golden caster sugar (I didn't have it so used ordinary caster sugar)

1 tbsp baking powder (doh, forgot this)

Pinch of salt

200ml milk

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Bramley apples (or whatever cooking apples you have), peeled, cored and sliced.

For the Sauce

140g dark brown sugar

250ml water.

50g pecans, roughly chopped

Then you:

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.  Lightly utter a 2 litre ovenproof dish

Tip the flour, sugar and baking powder, along with a pinch of salt, into a large bowl. Mix together the milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract and stir into the dry ingredients until you get a smooth batter. Arrange the apples in the dish, spoon the batter on top and smooth with a knife until the apples are covered. (Didn't need to use knife as batter was quite liquid).

For the topping, pour 250ml boiling water over the sugar and stir together until smooth. Pour the liquid over the pudding mixture, then scatter over the pecans. 

Bake for about 40 mins until the pudding has risen and is golden. Use a big spoon to serve the pudding, making sure you get some of the gooey caramel sauce covering the bottom of the dish. Serve with pouring cream, warm custard or vanilla ice cream.   Or, as happened in our house today, simply place the dish in the middle of the table and hand the savages, Himself included, a big spoon.