Apple and Blackberry Cake
I love the start of autumn and harvest time. The cooler days and turning leaves that bring such a bounty of delicious ingredients to the kitchen.
This cake is a love letter to sweet British Gala apples and their hedgerow companion, the blackberry. They are perfect partners folded into this buttery cake mix along with ground almonds to create a delightfully dense and sticky teatime treat.
Method
You will need a 22cm cake tin, buttered and lined and a food processor. The eggs and butter need to be room temperature.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c/160c Fan.
Prep time: 10 mins Cooking time: 1 hour 20 - 30 minutes plus cooling.
Peel and core 2 of the apples. Chop them into pieces of approximately 1 cm and set aside in a bowl. Leave the skin on the remaining apples and core and cut them into slices.
Put the apples slices in separate bowl and squeeze the lemon juice and toss to coat to stop them from browning. Repeat with the chopped lemons. Quarter the blackberries.
Next, put the butter and sugar into the food processor and cream until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs and, with the motor running, gradually add to the butter and sugar. Make sure each addition of egg is completely mixed in before adding more.
Add the ground almonds, flour and salt to the food processor. Pulse until everything is well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl and gently fold in the chopped apples and blackberries.
Spoon the cake mixture into the buttered and lined cake tin. Push it into the edges of the tin and smooth over the top so that it is even. Arrange the apple slices onto top of the cake mix in two circles - one inside the other. Sprinkle over the Demerara sugar.
Place the cake on the middle shelf in the oven and cook for 1 hour 20 -30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then gently move to a cooling rack. Heat the honey in a ramekin for 10 - 15 seconds in the microwave. Use a pastry brush to brush the honey over the top of the cake as a glaze.
Leave to cool completely before serving so that the filling has time to firm up.
This cake is best kept in an airtight tin and eaten within a day or so because of the fruit on the top.
Ingredients
4 Gala apples
1/2 lemon
150g blackberries, quartered
140g caster sugar
175g soft butter
2 large eggs beaten
140g self-raising flour
100 ground almonds
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp Demerara sugar
2 tbsp runny honey
