Apple and Sultana (Pantry) Cake

I’m calling this apple and sultana cake a “pantry cake” because it’s excellent for those days when you want to bake, but don’t want to shop. Surely we all have a couple of apples lying around? Brown sugar? Maybe some dried fruit that needs be used?

I stumbled upon this recipe when I was in just such a conundrum.

This recipe, among others, was inherited. I don’t know when it was even last used or baked. Maybe a couple of decades ago? That made it even more satisfying to bake, knowing at one point it was loved enough to be committed to paper. I felt like a food archeologist, diving into the past. My mother-in-law had many such recipes, some her own, some passed between friends.

Terrifically, this apple and sultana cake remains moist for days. It’s great with a cup of tea, and also as a faux-pudding dessert with your choice of accompaniment!

If you like your apples not just in cakes but in poetry, please find some here, and here.

And if you’d like to read about the wider cultural significance of the apple, this website Apples & People is an interesting resource. From the site: “… a series of more than forty short stories explor[ing] different aspects of the apple’s significance to people across the world. They tell of global connectedness and individual endeavour; of dedication and happenchance; of people and nature working closely together.”

“And they lived apple-y ever after.”

-The Internet