This tray bake has a delicious cake base, with lots of texture and flavour. It is great cold, but even better warm served with dairy free custard. 

Don’t be afraid to change the filling for this recipe. Its easy to do and makes for a great seasonal tray bake. As it is autumn now, the apples were ready in the garden so the recipe below uses apples and cinnamon. For a more winter desert, try switching it for plums and mixed spice. In spring it is great with early rhubarb, and for summer why not give gooseberries a go.

Ingredients:

 

For the base:

6 oz margarine (Pure sunflower spread or vitalite work best for this recipe)

6 oz caster sugar

3 eggs

3 oz self raising flour

3 oz ground almonds

1 tsp almond essence

For the filling:

2-3 apples of your choice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the crumble topping:

4 oz self raising flour

2 oz margarine (stork is best for this as it comes in a more solid form)

2 oz caster sugar

 

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C

For the base:

Cream together the sugar and the fat

Beat in the eggs

Stir in the flour and the almonds and add the almond essence

Spread the mixture across the bottom of a baking tray, so it is about an ½ inch thick

For the filling

Peel and finely slice the apples. For this recipe I used apples growing in my back garden. They were quite small so I needed three to cover the tray, but if you are using Bramley apples you will only need two

Fry the apples off for a few minutes. This will remove any excess moisture which may stop the sponge from rising, and stop them becoming discoloured

Evenly place the apple slices across the sponge in a uniform pattern

Sprinkle the cinnamon over the apples

For the topping:

Rub together the fat and the flour till it resembles breadcrumbs

Then stir in the sugar. This is a standard crumble recipe and can be used to top fruit on its own.

Sprinkle the crumble topping across the apples so they are nicely covered

Place in the oven for about 35-40 mins, until the sponge is completely cooked and a knife or skewer in the middle comes out clean, and the crumble topping is nice and brown.

Allow to cool in the tray for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack. Allow to cool if you want to eat later, or serve straight away as a pudding.

Give it a try, and come up with your own variations. Let me know how you get on in the comments below.