Plum and Apple Crumble Cake

I have wanted to try making a cake with a crumble topping for quite a while. Then little S was born and time to do things like baking seemed to disappear into the far recesses of my mind. And then one day, quite unexpectedly, S slept for just about the entire day, waking up just to feed – suddenly I had time – although I didn’t know until the end of the day that it would be a whole day and no plans for that time. And so I seized the moment and started making this cake, expecting to be interrupted at any moment. Although I like the idea of plums in a crumble topped cake anyway, we also happened to have a punnet that needed eating on that magic day when I had time to bake this. I’ve given the fruit quantities as I used them in this cake when I made it; however, I would recommend doubling the quantity of fruit and having two layers of it if you try making this. This would also be good with other fruit, such as rhubarb, instead of the plums and apples that I used. I made this in an 8 inch round cake tin and, as usual, the ‘cup’ quantities below are based on a 250 ml mug as equal to one cup.

What you’ll need:

For the fruit layer:

5 to 6 plums

2 sweetish eating apples

2 tablespoons of light brown sugar

For the cake:

2/3 cup margarine or butter

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 dessertspoon vanilla essence

3 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup ground almonds

For the crumble topping:

3/4 cup flour (I used self-raising because it is what I had, but plain flour would be fine too)

Pinch salt

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/4 to 1/3 cup light brown sugar (adjust to taste)

2 dessertspoons margarine or butter

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F) and grease the cake tin.

2. For the fruit layer, cut the plums into quarters and the apples into eighths. Line the bottom of the cake tin with the cut fruit and then sprinkle the brown sugar over the top of the fruit.

3. For the cake layer, cream together the margarine or butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, and then beat in the vanilla essence and the eggs, mixing in one egg at a time. Sift the flour and salt into the bowl, add the ground almonds and then fold the flour, salt and ground almonds into the margarine, sugar and egg mixture. Once all the ingredients for the cake batter are thoroughly combined, spread the batter evenly across the top of the fruit in the cake tin.

4. For the crumble topping, sift the flour and salt into a clean bowl. Add the ground almonds, sugar and margarine or butter to the bowl and then rub the margarine or butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Scatter the crumble topping evenly over the cake mixture in the cake tin – there is no need to press the crumble topping into the cake mixture – scattering it loosely and then evening the top will be fine.

5. Once the topping is on the cake, bake it in the middle of the pre-heated oven for about an hour or until done. You will need to cover the cake tin with foil about half way through the baking process, once the crumble topping has cooked, to prevent the top from burning.

6. Once the cake has cooked, remove it from the oven and cool on a baking tray. This would be good served warm or cold with custard or cream, although, it is also good plain and unadorned if, like me on the day I made this, you don’t have either of those to hand.

Vanilla Blondies

Well – in my last post, I said that I had a few recipes that I hoped to share soon and I feel this is getting off to a good start – a new post only a few days later than my last post (as opposed to over a month as has been the case all too often this year…).

This recipe was invented during a period of intense seeking after brownie perfection (this recipe is a product of that time and in fact, is just a variant of this recipe, which actually came first despite the fact that the brownie recipe made it onto the blog months ago). I was a bit-over-chocolated and wanted something different but still similar to the perfect brownies after which I aspired (and still do). Something must have gone right because this recipe is now one of J’s favourites – and one of the few foods that he finds close to irresistible (his general attitude to food, which is to eat when he is hungry and not to eat when he is not is something my greedy self wishes I had more in common with). This recipe is very easy to make and easy to vary – for example, try substituting the cranberries and macadamia nuts for other nuts and/or fruit, add in some chocolate chunks or drizzle chocolate on top – one combination that I like (and which received good reviews at work!) is to swop the cranberries and macadamias for walnut pieces and to drizzle white chocolate on the top.

I baked this in a baking tin measuring about 11 inches by 7 inches. All the cup measurements below are based on a 250 ml mug as equal to 1 cup. Apologies for the weird light in the photos in this post – a sad consequence of baking at night by the yellow glow of the kitchen light rather than in natural light.

What you need:

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

1 cup (and a bit more if you fancy) of mixed cranberries and macadamia nuts

2 eggs

1 dessertspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter, melted

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F) and grease the baking tray well.

2. Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the cranberries and macadamias to the bowl and mix everything together well.

3. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and butter to the bowl and mix together vigorously with a whisk until thoroughly combined. I find it best to add the eggs to one side of the bowl and the butter to the other side of the bowl immediately before whisking, to avoid any egg being inadvertently cooked by hot butter.

4. Tip the batter into the greased baking pan, spread it equally across the pan and level the top. This batter can be quite stiff, particularly if you eggs were on the small side, and so it may need some work to spread it fully in the pan.

5. Bake in the middle of the pre-heated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until done. At this point a skewer will come out mostly clean with a wettish crumb – if a skewer comes out with raw batter on it, leave the blondies in the oven to cook for a bit longer.

6. When done, remove the blondies from the oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack before cutting, decorating with melted chocolate (if desired) and devouring.

Sticky Toffee Cake

I don’t remember the first time I ate sticky toffee pudding. Most of the time when I’ve been tempted by it as a menu option, it has followed a hearty pub meal, and these are times when I am more tempted by options such as brownies and ice cream or lemon tart. However, once I tried it I was sold on it. Not so sold that I’ll never again choose brownies and ice cream or lemon tart over sticky toffee pudding, but sold enough for it to always be a viable contender. A couple of weeks ago, it won the pudding-menu-option-fight and I had an average to good sticky toffee pudding. Since then, I’ve been craving more sticky toffee pudding. However, I decided to try making it in cake form rather than as a steamed pudding. This had the advantage not only of being much quicker to prepare but also meant that I was able to sneak a quick slice for ‘elevenses’ yesterday morning (not something I usually have). This is good served hot from the oven in the same way you would serve sticky toffee pudding (my preference is with custard, but, if you’re not familiar with this pudding, cream or ice cream also work well) or cold. The sauce on top sinks to the bottom to make a thin gooey layer, although this does seem to dry pretty quickly once the cake has been cut. The cup measurements below are all based on a 250 ml mug as equal to 1 cup and I baked it in a baking pan (actually a roasting tin) which measured about 12 inches long by 9 inches wide by 2 inches deep. This cake is quite sweet – decrease the sugar slightly if you’d prefer yours less sweet. You can also vary the taste slightly by using ground ginger in place of the mixed spice and/or add a generous handful of nuts, such as walnuts of pecans, either to the cake batter or sprinkled on top after adding the sauce. If you’d like extra sauce to serve alongside the cake, make another batch using the same quantities as those given below, but with extra milk or cream to bring it to an easy pouring consistency.

What you’ll need:

For the cake:

250 gram package of stoned dates

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

3 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

1 heaped teaspoon ground mixed spice

For the sauce:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

What to do:

1. Roughly chop the dates. Put them in a heatproof bowl and then cover them with the water and set them aside for later.

2. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F) and grease the pan well with butter or margarine.

3. In a new, clean bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer.

4. Beat the eggs into the creamed butter and sugar, one at a time, with an electric mixer.

5. Sift the flour, salt and mixed spice into the butter/sugar/egg mixture and fold in.

6. Tip the soaked dates and any unabsorbed water into the butter/sugar/egg/flour mixture and fold in thoroughly. My batter looked slightly curdled at this stage – probably because my butter and eggs were pretty cool; however, it did not seem to affect the cake so don’t worry if yours looks curdled too.

7. Tip the cake batter into the greased pan and spread out evenly across the pan and then set aside whilst you make the sauce.

8. To make the sauce, put in a small saucepan the butter, sugar and milk and then put the pan over a low heat. You may need to give it a quick mix once or twice or swill the milk/melting butter around the bottom edges of the pan to ensure that all the sugar is incorporated. The butter and sugar should soon melt fully and the mixture will reach a rolling boil. Once this point is reached, keep the pan over the heat for a further minute or so, at boiling point, and then remove from the heat. Leave the sauce to cool in the pan for a minute or two.

9. When the sauce has cooled slightly, pour it over the top of the cake batter and then swirl it into the batter with the end of a butter knife.

10. Bake the cake in the middle of the pre-heated oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until done. You will need to test it but checking to see that it is beginning to pull away from the sides and is springy to the touch – a skewer may not come out clean as the sauce will have settled at the bottom of the pan and made a thin layer of gooey goodness. Please excuse the little bit of ‘quality control’ in the corner of the pan – I was initially confused when this came out of the oven as the cake looked cooked but I didn’t expect the gooey layer at the bottom and so was confused about why my skewer wasn’t coming out clean…

11. When the cake has cooked, remove it from the oven and either leave to cool in the pan on a cooling rack or serve immediately with your choice of sauces and accompaniments.