Spiced apple cake w/ pecan streusel topping

Despite the best efforts of the supermarkets to keep on flogging us apples shipped to Britain from distant nations, this essential fruit is dropping off trees right left and centre right here, right now. So take advantage of it!

I got a couple of kilos from a tree in my folks’ garden, and our own small tree also has a reasonable crop. (I’ve yet to go down to road and scrounge any from the fabulous big old tree in the garden of our friend Rachael.) Anyway, there are so many apples around at the moment, it’d be silly not to make apple cakes.

This one is from ‘Delia’s Vegetarian Collection’, a book from 2002 – whenthe grande dame of British cooking of the last few decades still encouraged real cooking and before she started encouraging people to “cheat” with bizarre processed food purchases.

Smith’s full title for the recipe is “Spiced Apple Muffin Cake with Pecan Streusel Topping”, and the suggestion is that the mixture is in the style of (American) muffins. But really talk of muffins is a distraction from it being a nice late-summer/autumn tea-time cake. It’s wholesome, not too sweet, with a taste of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, and the tartness of the apple offset by the sweet crunch of a pecan streusel topping.