My neighbour Lynne gives me a huge bag of golden, fragrant quinces from the tree in her garden every autumn. Over the years, I’ve added to the repertoire of what do with the quince harvest on this page of the Pigeon Cottage Kitchen website. Another friend of mine said she’s made a cake with some of hers so I thought I’d give that a go too. The flavour of quince is kind of like a cross between an apple and pear so I adapted this cake recipe, usually made with 100% dessert apples, to a mix of roughly 75% quince and 25% Braeburn apple. It’s easy to make and tastes much better after a day or two so it’s a perfect ‘make ahead’ cake. I love the flavour and texture of this and, if I make it again, I may create a version with the zest of a whole orange to give it a different twist.

• Makes a 20cm round cake
• 200g peeled quince and 1 dessert apple (Cox or Braeburn), peeled and coarsely grated
• Juice of half a lemon
• 170g soft light brown sugar
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 room temperature egg, beaten
• 225g self-raising flour
• 1.5 tsps ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• A pinch of salt
• 170g raisins
• 1/2 tbsp demerara sugar

To make…

• Line the base of a round 20cm wide, deep-sided cake tin (I use a spring-form one) with baking parchment. Lightly brush the sides with a little oil.
• Heat the oven to 180C.
• Peel, core and quarter the whole quince and the apple and place into a large bowl of water with the lemon juice to prevent it from turning brown. Feed the large pieces of quince and apple through the coarse grating disc of a food processor or box grater.
• Place the grated quince and apple mixture into a large mixing bowl and stir in the soft light brown sugar, oil, vanilla and beaten egg. Combine thoroughly.
• Measure out the dry ingredients i.e. the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix thoroughly and then stir into the apple mixture. Stir in the raisins.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level the top. Sprinkle the top evenly with the Demerara sugar.
• Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
• Store by wrapping in clingfilm and foil, at room temperature.

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