• Preheat the oven to 170C/340F/gas mark 3.
• Lightly butter a medium-sized baking dish or pudding bowl.

  (Our oval dish used in the photo is 24cm x 17cm x 7cm.)

Prepare the apple filling

• Wash, peel, core and slice the apples into thin slices.

  As a rough guide, for larger apples like Bramleys, quarter them and then slice each quarter into three. If you're using smaller apples like Granny Smiths, you may only need to halve each quarter.
  500 grams cooking (Bramley) or eating apples
• Tip the apples along with the light brown sugar, lemon juice, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, salt and sultanas into a large lidded frying pan or lidded saucepan.
  80 grams light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons sultanas or raisins
• Place the pan over medium-high heat and stir until the sugar starts melting. Once you see it starting to melt, cover the pan, lower the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Stir a couple of times during this period.
• After the 5 minutes, take the pan off the heat. Stir the apples to coat them in the caramel sauce and spices, then set the pan aside to cool. Don't transfer the apples to the baking dish just yet.

Make the sponge topping

• In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter, caster sugar and vanilla extract.
  125 grams unsalted butter, 125 grams caster sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Beat together at a medium-high speed for approximately 5 minutes minimum until the mixture becomes very light and fluffy.
• Add one room-temperature egg and beat well until incorporated. Add the second egg and beat again. It should take approximately 1-2 minutes.
  2 large eggs
• Next, add the milk and beat again for approximately 1 minute.
  3 tablespoons milk
• In a separate bowl, stir together the self-raising flour and the baking powder. A fork works well for this step.
  125 grams self raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Add half of the flour mixture to the batter. Using a very low speed on your mixer, beat just until most of the flour has been incorporated.
• Add the second half and gently beat again using a very low speed. Stop as soon as the flour has been incorporated. Be careful not to overmix.
• Use a spatula to gently scrape the sides of the bowl and incorporate any remaining flour into the mix with a few gentle folds.

Assembling the pudding

• Revisit the apple filling in the pan. The cooled, thicker sauce will now adhere better to the apples, so give them another good stir through the sauce.
• Transfer the apple filling to the baking dish. Gently press the apples down and level the surface as much as possible. This ensures an even bake for the sponge topping.
• Spoon the batter onto the apples in large dollops.
• Use the back of a spoon to smooth the batter out, ensuring it covers the dish from side to side. Take care to 'seal' the edges so the apple filling won't bubble up onto the sponge topping during baking.
• Place the pudding in the preheated oven on the middle shelf.
• Let it bake undisturbed for 25 minutes without opening the oven door. After 25 minutes, loosely cover the dish with foil to prevent the top from browning too much.
• Keep baking for an additional 30-35 minutes until the middle of the cake feels firm and spongy and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the sponge part.

  Important: Make sure the middle of the sponge is thoroughly cooked and springs back before removing the pudding from the oven, otherwise, it might collapse and create a dent in the middle.
• Serve warm with a helping of custard, a dollop of whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of toasted flaked almonds.
  handful of flaked, toasted almonds for sprinkling