Karen from Lavender and Lovage invites us to visit the beautiful and diverse county of Yorkshire for Best of British this month. We've already been to Cornwall when I made clotted cream & strawberry tart and cookies and last month to Scotland where I attempted Scottish Tablet. For Yorkshire, I decided to try this simple yet delicious recipe from Wensleydale Creamery. It uses Real Yorkshire Wensleydale & Cranberries cheese in the cake. Yes real cheese in a cake!! I have to admit I was a little nervous trying the recipe out but I do know that apples and cheese go well together so why not in a cake?
It is so amazingly delicious I don't know why it's taken me so long to try this. Honestly, this is one of the best cakes I've eaten in a while and that's saying a lot from a sweet toothed gal like me. The cake is sweet and savoury at the same time. I love the tartness of the apples and cranberries and the lovely creamy taste of the cheese especially the slightly browned bits at the edges! Everyone was impressed with this cake and it disappeared in record time. I ate one slice warm straight from the oven as it smelt so good baking I just couldn't resist and it was delicious with a capital D! I ate another slice the next day and it was just as good. Writing about it now, I wish I had more cake to enjoy - guess what I'll be baking this weekend? :)
The Best of British Challenge was created by Fiona from London Unattached and Karen from Lavender and Lovage which will run for 6 months. Each month, a county or region around the UK is selected. To enter, blog about your interpretation of a recipe or dish from that region. The challenge is sponsored by New World Appliances and there is a prize of a £50 Amazon voucher.
The star ingredient - delicious on its own 
cake batter with chunks of apple 
crumbling in the cheese 
almost ready to go in the oven... 
just needs a topping of apple slices and a sprinkling of sugar 
Recipe from Wensleydale Creamery
150g butter
175g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp milk
175g self raising flour
2 apples – peeled, cored & sliced + 1/2 apple for the topping
125g Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries
1 tbsp Demerara Sugar (I used brown sugar)
- Preheat the oven to 170C.
- Grease a 20cm / 8" cake tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
- Add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the milk and flour.
- Fold in the apples and crumble over the cheese.
- Spoon the mixture into a tin.
- Arrange the apple slices (from approx 1/2 an apple - depends on your cake tin size) on top and sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
- Bake for 55 minutes until risen and golden brown.
- Leave to cool in the tin.
I can absolute imagine the cheese working well in the cake ... hm ... yummy ... and when I think about it, I would really appreciate a piece of it right now! Lovely post!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks - I was really impressed with this recipe and yes the cheese works very well with the apples and cake.
DeleteIve also made this cake with pears instead of the apples. Its just as delicious !
DeleteFantastic recipe, Ros. Love that Wenslydale with fruit, I like the apricot one too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janice - I'm so excited to have discovered a whole new world of cheese (and baking possibilities!)
DeleteOh wow! I love Wensleydale with cranberries but would never have thought to try it in a cake. This does look so yummy though it has got my curiosity going! :)
ReplyDeleteI love trying new things so I thought I'd take a chance and I'm so glad I did as the result is amazing.
DeleteRight, I've got your recipe in my TO DO file. Will have to make a shopping list and then do some baking! This looks seriously yummy! : )
ReplyDeleteHave you tried this yet? Do let me know what you think? :)
DeleteThis looks amazing! I will have to look for that cheese or a suitable substitute.
ReplyDeleteI hope you find a suitable alternative as it's a really good cake :)
DeleteYum Yum Yum! Looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThat apple cake looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteit looks amazingly delicious too... the whole cheese/apple thing is really really lovely isn't it? They just work so well together... this recipe is outstanding and I must try it, I love the wensleydale with cranberries anyway so this is perfect for me!
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've tried this cheese and it's really good. I am now totally in love with the apple/cheese (and cake) combination!
DeleteThis cake looks fantastic. Definitely adding to my list of recipes to try out. I love cheese and cake together. My Dad is from Lancashire and we were brought up eating crumbly Lancashire cheese with rich fruit cake. So the idea of cheese in a cake sounds perfect to me!
ReplyDeleteClearly I need to move further north as cheese in a cake is a genius idea!
DeleteOh my goodness how weird is this?! cheese in a cake - Ros, you've put some crazy things in your cakes before but cheese? really? and it tastes good? Haha I'll take your word for that one, because if you say it's the best cake you've made in a while then that's pretty impressive! I only came over to the cheese paired with apple side recently thanks to Byron but cheese in a cake could take me a while longer!
ReplyDeleteLOL put crazy things in my cakes :) hmm I suppose I have. I thought the same when I saw cheese as in real cheese in cake but it honestly tastes fabulous! I hope you get round to trying this because it has converted me!
DeleteA WONDERFUL cake Ros and a SUPER entry for Best of British and Yorkshire. As I mentioned to you on Twitter, we in Yorkshire, always eat cheese with apple pie and fruit cake, so to add it to the cake is a GENIUS idea! THANKS for your WONDERFUL entry! Karen
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned earlier, clearly I need to move up north as you have the best ideas!! cheese with apple pie (yum), yorkshire pudding (yum) and this cake - super yum! So pleased I got to try this for best of british.
DeleteRos I love this recipe look absolutely delicious!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gloria!
DeleteWow this must be good if it's the best cake you've eaten in a while! I think Wallace of Wallace and Grommit might agree too! ;-) I might have to try this one if it's delicious with a capital D! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think Wallace would be very pleased! I really, really enjoyed this cake :)
DeleteWhat an impressive recipe, it certainly seems to produce a very substantial cake ... and lets face it if you are going to have cake you may as well make it good'un!
ReplyDeleteThanks - it was a very substantial and delicious cake indeed :)
DeleteAmazing! Great recipe & looks very delicious too! :)
ReplyDeleteI just love this cake. So clever of you and it combines sweet and savoury tastes in such a good way. It can only be delicious!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed meeting you tonight and your friend too. Always enjoy being able to meet fellow bloggers in person and talk as well as eat cake too :-)xx
It was lovely to meet you too! Hope to see you again at another event. Do give this cake a try if you like cheese as its delicious!!
DeleteWell I've often eaten Wensleydale cheese with fruit cake but I've never combined it with fruit in a cake. Nice idea - I'm getting hungry again.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of fruit cake but this cake gets 10/10 from me!
DeleteOooh, what a lovely idea! The combination of cheese and apple in a cake sounds divine to me, glad to hear it worked out so well.
ReplyDeleteThe flavours worked really well together!
DeleteI must try this! I LOVE cheese (probably even more than I love cake) and Wensleydale is my absolute favourite. I can't imagine what it would be like in cake form but I will be finding out very soon! Thanks for sharing what sounds like a fab recipe!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I'd not tried Wensleydale cheese before this but I'm so glad I discovered it as it's amazing. This cake is better than amazing :)
DeleteI've seen old recipes for apple pie that include cheese, so can see how this would work. Wensleydale is quite a mild cheese and the fact it has cranberries in it would be a lovely addition.
ReplyDeleteGreat cake
Now I feel the need to try apple pie with cheese!
DeleteMy God - I love wensleydale! What's the other one which is similar... is it Caerphilly? It's one of the things I miss so much, living in France. Sure, they say they have the most awesome cheese to grace the earth but sometimes, damnit, I just want a chunk of wensleydale or red leicester!!!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the wensleydale in the cake - I like to eat wensleydale with Christmas cake so I can imagine it's a fantastic combination - so creamy!
It's my first time tasting Wensleydale so I'm not sure about the other one but it's delicious! Worked really well in this cake - yum!
DeleteLove the idea of cheese in a cake and I am now thinking a trip to the shops tomorrow to find me some Wensleydale! Great entry for Best of British.
ReplyDeleteWensleydale cheese is amazing! I'm going to start adding cheese to my cakes now :)
DeleteLove the idea of cheese in a cake and I am now thinking a trip to the shops tomorrow to find me some Wensleydale! Great entry for Best of British.
ReplyDeletebokep