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.

Tasty Buns

There's nothing better than a sweet, sticky bun from the bakers. It's something I'm sure everyone must feel some sort of nostalgia about... even just the smell that emanates from a bakery full of incredible treats. One evening after work I was desperate for something sweet and I saw these adorable Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies on Pinterest (my new favourite obsession). As good as these looked, I was after something a little more substantial... something a little more melt in the mouth. 

Here is the outcome.

Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients:

For the buns:

• 500ml milk
• 150g butter 
• 800g strong plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 7g fast action dried yeast
• 100g golden caster sugar
• Brown sugar for sprinkling

For the filling:

• 75g butter
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 75g golden caster sugar

For the glaze:

• Icing Sugar
• Ground Cinnamon
• Water

Here's what you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 or 200 degrees.
2. Put 25g of the butter and the milk into a jug and pop it in the microwave. Heat in 30 degree intervals until the butter has melted and the milk has warmed. Set this to one side.
3. In a bowl, put your flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Give it a quick stir to combine everything. 
4. Add the milk/butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix in with a wooden spoon until a dough starts to form.
5. At this point, I found it easiest to get my hands in and form the mixture into a better dough. But prepared to get a little messy.
6. Now you need to knead (get it?) the dough for a good 10 minutes. Stretch it, punch it, squish it, do whatever you need to do to get rid of all of your stress. At the end it needs to be smooth and luscious.
7. Cover the dough and put it to one side.
8. Now you need to make the filling. Melt your butter a little bit and combine it with the other ingredients so it makes a gorgeous paste.
9. Get a big sheet of baking paper and sprinkle it with flour. Now roll your dough out to cover the baking sheet. If you've done it right, the dough should be very stretchy.
10. Now spread the filling all over the dough. Again, I found it easier (and more fun) to use my hands to ensure that the dough was covered properly (and you get to lick your hands afterwards).
11. Now if you pull the baking paper up on one end, whilst tucking the dough round a little bit, as you pull the dough should roll and form a giant swiss roll shape.
12. Prep a cupcake or muffin tin by placing little cake cases into each of your muffiny things. 
13. Use a very sharp knife to slice thin portions of dough from your swiss roll. Sometimes the whirl shape doesn't hold properly, so just use your creativity to twist it a bit until it forms a cool shape.
14. Place each whirl into a case and sprinkle over a little brown sugar.
15. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes until golden brown.
16. Leave to cool.
17. Make the glaze by combining the icing sugar and cinnamon and then add water until you've got a good, loose consistency.
18. Drizzle your glaze over the buns and enjoy!