Dorset Apple Cake with a Plum Jam Glaze

I found out at an early age that my name, Georgina, means 'girl of the farm'. I also come from Dorset. This means that I occasionally get teased about my southern, farmer nature. When I find my farmer-esque accent slipping in to my daily speech, I panic and run and hide from my heritage. But today I'm celebrating Dorset! It's a beautiful county with so many things going for it. One of which is the Dorset Apple Cake. 

My dad and his girlfriend have an apple tree in their garden and recently gave me a large bag of apples to use up. What better way then to stick them all in a cake? Then eat the cake. The glaze is another creation of leftovers, as I had some leftover cider from my cassoulet and half a jar of plum jam looking a bit lonely in the fridge.

Dorset Apple Cake with a Plum Jam Glaze

Recipe adapted from Delicious Magazine 

This is a great cake to be eaten while it's still warm, so don't wait to tuck in!

Ingredients

For the cake:

225g butter, softened

450g apples

1 lemon - zest and juice

225g caster sugar

3 large eggs

225g self-raising flour

2tsp baking powder

25g ground almonds

Demerara sugar for topping

For the Glaze

3 tbsp Plum Jam

50ml Dry Cider (Optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Grease a springform cake tin and line with baking paper.

Peel, core and cut the apples into small pieces and toss with the lemon juice.

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl until fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, adding a little flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

Sift the remaining flour and the baking powder into the bowl and fold in with the ground almonds.

Drain the apple pieces well and then stir into the mixture.

Pour into the cake tin and level the mixture.

Cover the top with demerara sugar.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen and brown. To test, poke a skewer into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean then it's ready! If the cake is browning too much, make it a hat out of baking paper to protect the top.

Whilst the cake is cooking, melt the jam and cider together in a small saucepan. Leave this to cool and  set.
Once the cake is out, leave it to cool in the tin for ten minutes.

Remove the cake from it's tin and pop onto a plate. Use a pasty brush to cover in the jam glaze.

Crab House Cafe

When you move into your first flat in central London, you realise that you can never go outside again. Because going outside means spending money, money that you don't have. So I've had to say goodbye to evenings out on the town, eating at restaurants and visiting the cinema on any day other than 'Orange Wednesdays'. Last weekend I was lucky enough to obtain a cheap train ticket home to Bournemouth. So I took the opportunity to have a good catch up with my best friend. As a lover of all things seafood, he decided that we absolutely needed to visit a particular restaurant in Weymouth, Crab House Cafe. It was the first time I'd been out on a Saturday night since goodness knows when. 

We embarked on the epic journey to this hidden gem in his little Fiat Panda and I worried that my ever-growing food standards would hinder my enjoyment of the evening. It's a long way to go for a bit of fish. But after our meal, I would have traveled a hundred miles further. It was a particularly chilly night, with a cutting wind blowing from the waterside, so we wasted no time in getting through the door. We were greeted immediately by (probably) the happiest looking man I have ever met - Alex was convinced that the waiter fancied him, totally disregarding the fact that he might just enjoy his job. The atmosphere in Crab House Cafe is a relaxed and rustic, with the kitchen slap bang in the center and fish counter laden with their succulent fresh catches. 

We were given our menu - which changes daily depending on what they have caught - and a wine list to peruse. A small menu is a virtue and I still really struggled to decide what to have. Their wine list had a good selection of wines and beers to accompany the seafood. Alex chose their house Oyster Stout, which was smooth, treacle-y and aromatic, whilst I opted for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (Isabella da Silva, 2010, Chile). Recently I have had some bad luck with Sauvignon Blancs (one of the only white wines I enjoy drinking), but this was crisp, fruity and sweet. It went down very easily to say the least. On the house, we were brought a board of bread and olives laced with seafood. As any good diner knows, you don't fill up on bread before you meal but the farmhouse look of this miniature loaf was begging to be ripped apart.

Spicy Mussel Bisque

Country Oysters

To start we had the Country Oysters (oysters cooked in cream with bacon) and a Spicy Mussel Bisque. I am a big oyster fan but have never tried the cooked variety before. You do lose the seawater tang in the cooking but the flavour coming from the sauce was worth it. Half a dozen was not enough. The mussel bisque was presented beautifully and had quite a kick to it. It was heady, rich and not overpowering - a beautiful bisque.

Plaice stuffed with Crab and Cheese

Sand Sole cooked in garlic oil

As soon as our starters had been cleared, our mains arrived. Alex opting for the Plaice stuffed with crab and cheese and myself for the Sand Sole cooked in garlic oil. The two sand sole fillets came off the bone incredibly easily and were perfectly cooked. On a bed of roast vegetables and potatoes and with a deliciously pungent sauce, this was a satisfying (and surprisingly filling) meal. 

Dorset Apple Cake with Cream

Chocolate Bourbon Tart with Whisky Chantilly Cream and Chocolate Wine.

I wasn't going to have a dessert as I was already full until I saw the Chocolate Bourbon Tart with Whiskey Chantilly Cream and Chocolate Wine. If not for the curiosity behind chocolate wine itself (was that just a really pretentious way of saying chocolate sauce?), then for the combination of two of my great loves - chocolate and bourbon. Alex was handed a sizeable slice of Dorset Apple Cake with cream and my tart arrived looking as good as it tasted. It turns out chocolate wine is genuinely just chocolate wine and was served in the cutest little glass I have ever seen (so easily pleased). The only criticism I have of Crab House Cafe is that my pastry was a little bit rock solid and quite difficult to cut through. It could have done with a little more time to come up to room temperature. But this didn't distract too much from the exquisite taste. 

I have to say that this is, without a doubt, the best meal I have eaten all year. Alex states that it was the best meal that he has ever eaten. Go to the Crab House Cafe for the crab, for the excellent service, for the skilled chefs, for the reasonable prices, for the changing menu, for the oyster farm. Just go, you won't be disappointed.