Cousin Patty's apple sponge slice
Serves 10
4 large cooking apples, peeled
¹/³ cup cold water
Juice of 1 lemon
¹/³ cup sugar
125g butter
½ cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
Icing sugar, to dust
1. Quarter apples, remove and discard cores, then cut flesh into slices. Place sliced apples, water, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes until apples are tender. Lightly grease a 17 x 27cm slice tin and spread cooked apple slices over base of tin. Heat oven to 160°C fan bake.
2. Combine butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in egg then briefly stir in sifted dry ingredients, just enough to combine. Place spoonfuls of sponge mix over the apples – the mix will be very thick but will spread during cooking to cover the apple base.
3. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until sponge springs back when touched. Sprinkle with icing sugar, cut in squares and serve with store-bought vanilla custard on the side, if desired.
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