Apple cinnamon cake

Autumn has really arrived, in the shape of long, grey, rainy days and cold nights. Also, several colleagues mentioned their large apple crop this year, which made me think back to the year my parents had box upon box of apples, which we turned into all kinds of apple pies and tarts and cakes.
Having this afternoon off, I'd thought I'd do some apple baking. Instead of an apple pie I decided upon an apple cake, as featured in Mary Berry's recipes. We used to make this kind of cake at home, by just spreading out cake mixture on a baking tray, pressing in apple parts, dusting the whole with cinnamon and sugar and baking it. But Mary's apple and cinnamon cake is a bit more sophisticated:

225 g softened butter
225 g light muscavado sugar
225 g self-raising flour
3 eggs
baking powder
sultanas
400 g apples, diced
100 g walnuts, chopped small
loads of cinnamon

As I forgot to buy the walnuts, I replaced them by almond flakes I had laying around. Also, I added some mixed spice to the cake mixture, because  mixed spice makes me think of autumn and Sinterklaas, and it's that kind of weather.
Pre-heat the oven at 180C and grease/baking parchment-line a baking tin.
Mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs together at high speed. Spoon in the sultanas and walnuts/almond flakes and spoon half the mixture into your baking tin. Spread the apples and cinnamon on top, and spoon the other half of the mixture over the apples. Sprinkle the top with the remaining walnuts, and some cinnamon and sugar.
Bake for 1.5 hours, leave to cool with the oven door open and then turn out on a wire rack.

For some reason I didn't really have enough mixture to fill my cake tin, so I had to press down on it quite hard to make it fit. This knocked most of the air out of it, and when I added the apples on top I was sure this cake was never going to rise. The top also proved difficult, with some apples still sticking out at the sides where I couldn't quite make the mixture reach. Nevertheless, about 10 minutes after I put it in the oven, the cake was already rising and spreading, with no apples visible anymore. It is amazing what the combination of self-raising flour, baking powder, and properly beaten eggs can do to the airiness of the cake.

Slightly burned on top, but still more rise than expected!

As it is still baking at the moment, I can't really tell what the end result is, but the smells coming to greet you as you enter the kitchen promise nothing but autumny apple goodness.

The end result, with a dash of icing sugar on the top. It tasted great!