It’s an old Northern tradition combining the flavours of strong hard cheese with the sweet notes of fruitcake. For a Middlands girl it was quite a strange combination to get my head round at first, but I'm glad I did! This is a farmhouse cheese recipe that has been used in the Northumberland Cheese Tea Room for many years, since 1986 I think. It was originally adapted from a traditional Lancashire Apple and Cheese cake but we use Kielder Jersey Milk Cheese. The rich buttery flavour of jersey cheese is perfect for this cake as it adds a subtle cheese taste and keeps the cake moist. Whilst we usually use Kielder this recipe also works well with Northumberland Original or Coquetdale (rind removed) as well. Happy baking everyone, and remember if it all seems like a lot of hard work, why not come and have a slice with us in the Tea Room instead?!
Ingredients:
8oz/225g Plain Flour
8oz/225g Caster Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1Ѕ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Ѕ tsp Salt
2 Eating Apples Grated
2oz/60g Chopped Walnuts
2oz/60g Chopped Dates
4 Eggs
1.25cups/300ml Sunflower Oil
125g Kielder Cheese
For the icing:
100g butter, softened
300g cream cheese
100g icing sugar , sifted
1 tsp apple juice (from the grated apple)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160°C and grease a 1kg loaf tin with butter or baking paper. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, castor sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs with the oil until well mixed. Grate the apples in a bowl, squeeze out any excess juice and retain in a glass. Add the grated apple, dates and walnuts to the egg and oil mixture and stir. Gradually fold the wet mixture into the flour mix and stir to combine thoroughly. Pour half the batter mix into the loaf tin and sprinkle over 100g of grated or crumbled Kielder. Pour the remaining mix over the top and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until golden brown. Keep an eye on your cake; if it is looking too brown on top cover with tin foil for the remainder of the baking time. The icing is easy peasy- beat together the butter and cream cheese, sift in the flour and add a teaspoon of the apple juice (that hopefully you saved rather than drank earlier on) and taste. Add more or less icing sugar depending on your sweet tooth. Once your cake has cooled completely top with the icing and a hand full of grated Northumberland Kielder Cheese. Enjoy with a proper pot of English tea!
.png)