A rich moist cake full of apple and spice
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, standard bake function. Grease and line a 22cm cake tin.
In a large bowl, add the flour, sugars, spices, baking powder, soda and salt. Stir to combine well.
In a separate bowl or jug, break the egg and beat it gently to mix up the yolk and the white. Add the oil, vanilla, sour cream and milk and stir to combine.
Peel the apples and slice them into 1/2 cm slices. If you prefer you can but them into 1cm cubes but I like to leave them a bit bigger so you can see the chunks of fruit in the cake when you eat it.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the contents of the jug. Mix until just combined, and then add in the apples. Stir the apples through until they are coated with the cake mixture.
Transfer the cake mixture to the prepared baking tin and use a spatula to gently smooth out the top. If using the optional topping, combine the ingredients in a small bowl and then sprinkle evenly over the top of the cake. Take care not to get any topping too close to the edges of the cake otherwise the sugar may stick to the sides of the tin and make it difficult to turn out the cake once its cooked.
Bake for around an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out cleanly. I found my cake needed a little over an hour to cook fully, due to the denseness of the cake and the amount of fruit.