(excerpt ‘From Lynda’s Table’)

There are some recipes that you cannot put a value on, but this one you can. It’s a €1,000 cake. A friend of old whom I had not seen for some years turned up at the school for a cookery course with a voucher for that amount. She had entered a Bord Bia (Irish Food Board) competition for ways to use Bramley apples (cooking apples) and had walked off with the prize for this simple but gorgeous apple cake. Is it worth that amount? Absolutely.

Preheat the oven to 160°C, 140°C Fan, 325°F, Gas 3. Line the cake tin with a circle of bakewell/parchment paper on the base. Butter and flour the sides of the cake tin and shake out the excess.

Mix the sugar, flour, ground almonds and baking powder together in a bowl. Add the beaten eggs and melted butter and stir well.

Put one third of the batter into the cake tin. Place a layer of apples over the batter and then spoon the rest of the batter on top. Sprinkle the surface with flaked almonds. Bake in the oven for about 50-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.