I’ve really got into this cooking lark while I’ve been off work for the summer.  Some of the baking has been inspired by things I’ve seen in magazines or on the TV and others have been inspired by the need to use up food to save its life!  This was one of the latter cases; some apples sitting in the fruit bowl looking very sorry for themselves!

You will need:

125g butter, 125g demerara sugar, 100ml apple and raspberry juice, 2 eggs, 275g plain flour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp ground ginger, 100g raisins, 150g sliced/ chopped apple.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper (I use ready made liners from Lakeland).  Cream together the butter and sugar until well mixed and then add the eggs and fruit juice.  Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the spices and mix until well combined.  Place slices of apple in the base of the loaf tin and then chop the rest of the apples and mix them and the raisins intto the batter.  Gently pour the mixture on top of the sliced apples.  Gently tap the tin so that the contents settle and then place in the oven for 50min-1 hour.  Delicious with a cup of coffee or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.