This is one of those seemingly impossible upside-down puddings that turns out amazingly well!
Smear a 2 litre ovenproof dish with butter. Peel, core and slice a couple of Bramley cooking apples and put into the dish.
Make a batter as follows: tip 140g self-raising flour into a large bowl, together with 100 g golden caster sugar, a Tbs
baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix together 200 ml whole milk, 85 g melted butter, a beaten egg and a tsp vanilla extract,
and stir this into the dry ingredients, mixing into a smooth batter. Pour this over the apples. Now put 140 g dark brown sugar
into a basin and pour over 250 ml boiling water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour this carefully over the batter, then scatter
with flaked almonds and bake in a 180°C oven for about 40 minutes, until the pudding has risen and is golden brown on top.