German apple cake

I learnt this recipe at my cooking school. It's a sponge with apple pieces and sultanas inside, and decorated with thinly sliced apple slices. It's very soft and it has a wonderful flavour. The result improves if you have all the ingredients at room temperature. You can use any fruit, but I strongly recommend to use apples. If you follow the recipe this cake will always turn out ok and your house will smell delicious when you are baking it, promise!

Ingredients:

240gms plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

180gms softened butter

3extra spoonfulls melted butter

180gms sugar

4 or 5 eggs

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

splash of vanilla essence

4 or 5 golden delicious apples

sultanas

brandy

Method:

Peel, core and dice two apples and fry with three spoonfuls of butter in a pan for ten minutes. Add a handful of sultanas and mix well, turn down the heat and add a splash of brandy or whisky and let it marinate. Turn off the heat and set aside. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. In a big bowl or food processor mix the butter with the sugar until it becomes a pale mixture, add the eggs, one at a time, the lemon juice and the vanilla. Sieve the flour and baking powder and add to the egg mixture. Add the diced cooked apple and sultanas mix, don't forget the liquid from the pan, this will give the cake the moisture. Pour the mixture in a greased cake tin (24cms). Peel the remaining apples, cut in quarters and slice them very thinly, now you have to arange them around the cake. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until a skewer comes away clean. To serve, heat two to three spoonfuls of apricot jam in the microwave and brush all the cake with it. Sprinkle some sultanas over and enjoy...