Apple, Almond and Cinnamon Mini-Cakes

These mini cakes are perfect served warm for delicious dessert, or cold for a picnic. I adapted the recipe from Mary Berry, and the result are 6 individual cakes, simply and beautifully flavoured with almond, cinnamon and apples.  

I used Bramley apples for the recipe, as they give tartness to the otherwise sweet cake. However, feel free to experiment with other sweeter varieties of apple.

To bake the cakes, I used a Mini Victoria Sandwich cake tin (in England, they are available from Lakeland: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15170/My-Kitchen-12-Cup-Mini-Sandwich-Tin). Alternatively you could use a muffin tin, or bake the mixture in one square sandwich cake tin (no more than 12cm in width), and cut them into squares/rectangles post-baking.

Makes 6 cakes/muffins

Ingredients:

• 75g melted butter
• 100g self-raising flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten lightly
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 small bramley apple (around 60g) peeled, cored, and roughly chopped
• Crème fraiche, to serve (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4. Grease the base and sides of the mini cake/muffin/sandwich tin.

2. Melt the butter. I found this quickest in the microwave, but it can also be melted in a pan instead.

3. Stir in the sugar, flour, almond extract, cinnamon and egg.

4. Once fully combined, stir in the chopped bramley apple.

5. Fill the moulds until they are ¾ full. Lift the tray up and tap onto the counter (this dispels any air bubbles).

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch.

7. If serving warm, leave to cool for about 10 minutes, before turning out and serving with Crème Fraiche. Otherwise, leave to cool completely before turning out. These will keep for about a week in a airtight tin.

8. Enjoy!!