Old Fashioned Apple Tea Cakes

It’s nearly Mother’s Day and most Mums I know (including me) love a cup of tea and a piece of cake.

Of all my Little Pudding treats, my Mum especially likes these apple tea cakes (recipe below). She loves nothing more than sharing one, warm from the oven, with Master N.

Cakes cooling on the fab new baker's cooling rack thingy my Mum bought me back from her recent road trip along the Great Ocean Road. This is why I spoil her with cake.

She spoons a big dollop of vanilla yoghurt on top (not for everyone but my son loves yoghurt just as much as she does) and they dig in together.

I prefer double cream. And perhaps, if I have some left over from my salted caramel peanut tarts, a splodge of caramel. It’s beyond comfort food and reminds me of butterscotch puddings from my childhood.

Home-made custard would also be a good partner for these little cakes if you wanted to serve them as an after-lunch pudding. They’re so easy and just scrumptious served straight from the oven.

Have a go experimenting with different fruit. I have been known to use nectarines in summer and plums in early autumn with a sugar crumble topping.

This batch was for Thelma & Louise Cafe in Neutral Bay, where they are on the menu year round. I’m told the nannas go nuts for them. Of course they do. It’s a Mum thing!

I’m setting the bar a little higher for Mr LP this Mother’s Day by asking for a chocolate passionfruit tart I saw on Cook Like Heston recently. Happily, he’s up for the challenge! Pics to come ;)

What’s your idea of the ultimate Mother’s Day treat for yourself or your Mum?

Larissa xx

Old Fashioned Apple Tea Cakes

Makes 12 (plus a couple of extras)

180g butter

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

2  cups self-raising flour

1 cup sour cream

2 apples finely sliced

¼ cup apricot jam

¼ cup Demerara sugar (raw sugar)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line a 12-cup muffin tray with patty pans (I use Robert Gordon ones but you don’t have to be fancy. Normal crinkly ones from the supermarket work just as well).

Cream butter, caster sugar and vanilla with a cake mixer until light and fluffy (about 5 mins).

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined.

Add half the flour and half the sour cream. Mix until just combined, and then repeat with remaining flour and sour cream.

Spoon mixture into prepared patty pans, filling each only ¾ full.

Place 3 or 4 apple slices into each cake.

Bake for 20-25 mins until puffed and golden.

Mix together the Demerara sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

As cakes are cooling, bring the apricot jam to a simmer in a small saucepan. When it is smooth and syrupy, use a pastry brush to glaze the top of each warm cake with jam and then lightly sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar.

Serve with double cream and a freshly brewed cup of tea.