Apple and Sultana Tea Cake

One of my favourite Aussie chefs is Karen Martini, currently of Mr Wolf in St Kilda. She creates great home-style dishes that anyone can enjoy. Karen was a regular writer of food features in The Age Sunday Life magazine until recently, when I understand she took maternity leave. I do miss her recipes, and hope that she comes back when her little one is older.

Recently, I made a lovely apple and sultana tea cake from one of Karen's Sunday Life features. If you like fruity cakes, you will love this. The only thing to be careful about is that, because of the high fruit content, the cake is quite fragile when it first comes out of the oven, so allow it to cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes before unmoulding. I was a little hasty, and nearly lost my cake as a result.

To make this delightful cake, you will need:

4 apples
1/4 cup sultanas
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar
juice of 1/2 a lemon
140g butter
140g sugar
2 eggs
140g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
extra brown sugar for sprinkling on top of the cake

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and grease a 10 x 28cm loaf tin.

Peel, core and dice the apples. Combine the apples in a bowl with the sultanas, lemon juice, cinnamon and brown sugar, and set aside.

Process the butter and sugar together in a food processor. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add to the butter mixture in the food processor and process until smooth. Put half the cake batter into the base of the prepared tin, then top with half of the apple mixture. Pour over the remaining batter, then the remaining apple mixture. Sprinkle the extra brown sugar over the top of the cake, then bake for approximately one hour or until cooked through.

Remove the cake from the oven, and cool it in the tin on a wire rack for around 20 minutes before unmoulding onto the wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

Cut into generous slices and serve with cream or icecream on the side, or on its own.