Apple and Blackberry Cake

Sun 19 Aug 2007

I'm a big fan of Nigel Slater's recipes and this cake appears to be almost bullet proof. This was the first outing for the new oven, so while I was cooking I held my breath! The cake came out evenly cooked and lovely and moist, so no complaints from me!

This cake consists of three parts: an almond cake base, a layer of fruit and a crumble. I find it easier to make the crumble first, as I don't need to bother with washing out the food processor. The cake is quick to make but does take an hour in the oven and you do need to let it cool down before eating it ...

Preheat the oven to 180C (conventional, 160C fan).

For the crumble: 100g (cold) unsalted butter, 100g demerara sugar, 100g plain flour and 2 tbsp of oats. Whizzy this together and put aside.

For the cake: mix 150g of unsalted butter with 150g of caster sugar. Add 3 eggs, 75g of self raising flour and 110g of ground almonds.

Put the cake batter into a greased, base-lined 20-cm springform tin and smooth over the top. On top of this, arrange an apple, peeled and cut into sixteenths and scatter with approximately 100-150g of blackberries (raspberries are also an excellent substitution).

Finally, top with the crumble and then bake for an hour: a skewer should come out clean, although it may well be moist thanks to the fruit.

The cake is very very buttery, so make sure you use a baking tray under the tin, otherwise you'll be cleaning butter out of the oven!

As the cake is fragile until cool, allow it a good rest in the tin before attempting to remove the base and the paper.

Thanks to the almonds, the cake is moist and keeps well: ideal for lunches throughout the week!

tagged with: baking, cake, apple, blackberry, crumble

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