Mary Berry’s spiced Dorset apple traybake recipe

The queen of family friendly recipes, Mary Berry is one of our go-tos whether you want to bake up a storm or create a meal everyone will love, like her macaroni cheese recipe. This sweet, spiced apple cake makes for the perfect warming dessert.

If your little one is a budding baker with their own cooking utensils and kids baking kit, then they'll love helping you out in the kitchen while making this. If it's autumn you could even go out beforehand and pick your own cooking apples together.

Cooking time: 55 minutes

Serves: 12

Serving options:

Serve warm with clotted cream or crème fraîche, for the ultimate pud experience or you can also enjoy cold as a midweek treat.

Puree: Blend some of the cooked apple with a little breastmilk or formula until smooth.

Finger food: Chop the cake into small slices that your toddler can pick up easily.

Ingredients

225g butter (room temperature), plus extra for greasing

550g cooking apples, such as Bramley

juice of ½ lemon

225g light muscovado sugar

300g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 tbsp full-fat or semi-skimmed milk

Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1 - Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan 160ºC/Gas 4). Grease the traybake tin with butter and line with baking parchment. Quarter, peel, core, and thinly slice the apples, and put them in a shallow dish. Pour over the lemon juice and toss gently together.

2 - Put the butter, muscovado sugar, flour, baking powder, ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon, the eggs, and milk in a large bowl. Beat thoroughly using an electric hand whisk for about 2 minutes (or use a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes) until smooth and light.

3 - Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and spread it out evenly. Lay half the apple slices on top and sprinkle over the remaining ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. Spoon the remaining cake mixture on top and carefully level the surface. Scatter the rest of the apple slices over the cake mixture and press them lightly into the surface.

4 - Bake for 40 minutes or until well risen and golden brown on top. The cake will feel spongy but firm, and will be starting to come away slightly from the edges of the tin. Also, the apples should be soft. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then loosen the sides with a small palette knife and turn out the cake, peel off the parchment paper, and leave to cool on a wire rack. Sift icing sugar over the top of the cake.

If you loved this recipe by Mary Berry, why not try making her vanilla cupcakes with swirly icing, perfect for any celebratory occasion, or if your tot is a little chocaholic then you should definitely give her creamy chocolate malt cake a go.

WATCH: How to make Mary Berry's Spiced Dorset Apple Traybake

Mary's top tips

It's all about the apples

Be sure to slice your apples very thinly. If the slices are too thick, they won't soften enough when baked. To help stop your apples from turning too brown, toss them in some lemon juice. This will also give them some flavour and extra juiciness.

Layer up

When spreading the second half of the cake mixture over the apples and cinnamon, make sure you're being careful and use a palette knife to make sure the apple slices beneath aren't disturbed. This will make sure you keep the layered effect you're looking for. Spread the apples evenly over the cake mixture and gently press them in. Don't worry about being too neat when layering the apples; scattering the apples in a random pattern can often make it look better!

This recipe is taken from Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect: Step by Step. Available as an eBook from DK.com, a download on iBooks and also on Amazon.