Very easy to make, this is a delicious and mellow fruit cake, rich with that classic combination of autumnal flavours - spicy, sweet and tart.

No apple pie

When I was looking around for my favourite apple pie recipe, I came across this untried one instead. Apple pie is very good but hardly a novelty - and as my supermarket offers apple pie that "looks home-made!" (read: a back-up for things going wrong) I thought I'd be adventurous and try the new thing. It's an American recipe in a German cake tin.

Preparation: peeling, shredding, chopping etc

Preheat the oven to a 180°C; thinly film the inside of the cake tin with a cooking spray.
First, chop and toast the nuts. Turn down the heat and set aside. Put the butter in the hot pan and leave to melt. Peel, core and shred the apples with a coarse grater.
Sift together the flour, cinnamon, mace, cardamom and salt.
Place the sugars and the eggs in a large bowl and beat at moderately high speed for 2 minutes. The mixture will turn creamy-textured and a coffee latte color. Add the oil and butter and continue beating for another 2 minutes.
Now beat in the dry ingredients on low speed. Lastly, fold in the shredded apple and the cooled nuts. Spoon the batter in the prepared baking tin, no more than about half full, and level the top with the spoon.

Baking

Bake for about 45 minutes; 30 minutes in, reduce the heat to 170°C.
Five minutes before it's done, place apple juice, honey vanilla sugar and cinnamon in a small sauce pan, and cook the mixture for 6 minutes to reduce to about 5 tablespoons. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
Take out the cake and let it cool slightly (5 minutes) then turn it onto a cooling rack. Apply the hot glaze over the top and sides of the warm cake with a soft food brush. Leave to cool completely; then decorate (optional) with melted white chocolate.

The shredded apple has now practically melted into the moist spicy cake, which is wonderful with your everyday afternoon tea, or served as a sublime dessert with ice cream etc. Only downside I can think of is the smallish size of the slices...