Cinnamon Apple Crumble Cake with Warm Toffee Sauce

Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

Apples: Peel, core and slice the apples 2 cm thick. Heat the butter and sugar in a sauté pan and cook the apples for 10 minutes, turning often, until golden and just tender but not collapsing. Cool.

Crumble: Put the flour, almonds, icing sugar, cardamom, orange zest and butter in a bowl and rub in the butter to make coarse crumbs. 

Cake: Combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, sugar and the baking powder in a large bowl.

Whisk the eggs, buttermilk, butter and vanilla together and using a large metal spoon, lightly fold into the dry ingredients along with the cooled apples, until just combined. Don’t over mix or the cake
will be tough.

Spoon the batter into the cake tin and smooth the top. Scatter the crumble evenly over the batter and bake for 40 minutes or until the crumble is golden and firm and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cover the top of the cake loosely with a piece of foil if it’s browning too fast.

Leave the cake in the tin to cool completely.

Sauce: Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil for 10-12 minutes or until it turns a light golden colour. Carefully pour in the cream, brandy and butter and simmer for 1 minute. If making ahead, reheat to serve.

To serve: Remove the cake from the tin and peel off the lining paper. Place on a serving plate and dust with icing sugar. Serve with the warm toffee sauce and softly whipped cream if desired.