What a busy week or so I’ve had. I planed to do so much in the kitchen this last week but I just haven’t had time.
Saturday last was my Eleanor’s cousin who is a good friend of ours wedding day. We we’re really worried as the weather was not holding up on the Thursday or the Friday and the forecast really didn’t look great but fortunately, the bride turned up in a horse drawn carriage and then the sun came out. Her theme was a vintage theme and the wedding breakfast consisted of a vintage tea party. They had done most things themselves and did really well. Home made cakes and sandwiches presented on vintage plates and cake stands which they spent months collecting. Really really cool. This was followed by opening two kegs of beer and one of the best hog roasts I’ve eaten.
Chatting to the chap running the hog roast I really thought what a great venture hog roasts really are. Admittedly you’ve got a hefty out going to begin with, but really, the popularity of hog roasts and any good marketing could help recover those fairly swiftly. It’s an interesting idea that I am thinking more and more about. The pig itself was cooked really well. Crispy, salty crackling that just melted in your mouth. YUM!
Anyway yesterday (Sunday) was the first chance i was able to really get into the kitchen just for the fun of it. Piggy one of my best mates doesn’t cook bless him. His mum and dad are away in Canada for three weeks having an amazing holiday and Piggy is left to fend for himself. We saw the Inbetweeners film Thursday and he mentioned his diet last week was burgers and microwave meals. We invited him over for dinner yesterday and have found that we’ve invited him for a couple more evenings just to make sure he’s actually eating! So, in the end I cooked a full roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings, my vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate fondant cakes (which I was going to photograph and share my recipe but they went really quickly, I’ll have to do another batch soon!) and finally the champion of this post, something I’m really pleased with how it turned out, a blackberry and apple crumble tray bake cake!
I’ve picked so many blackberries over the past 2 weeks that I am looking for every opportunity to use them and having had the start of this years Great British Bake Off it seemed only right to make a cake. This is a great way to make a small cake for sharing and use some fresh ingredients. I used a bramley apple to pair up with the blackberries because its such a classic combination. The result was a crunchy topped cake with a moist, sweet inside.
Here’s my recipe:
Blackberry and apple crumble tray bake cake
Ingredients
- For the Crumble
- 25 g self raising flour
- 25 g unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar
- 1 tbsp ground almonds
- 2 tbsp porridge oats
- For the cake
- 175 g self-raising flour
- 175 g unsalted butter
- 175 g demerara sugar
- 1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 200 g peeled and chopped apple 1 bramley cooking apple was more than enough
- 100 g blackberries
Instructions
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Heat oven to 180C/160C (Gas mark 4)
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Grease and line a 23cm square tin.
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Put the flour and the butter with the demerara sugar, almonds and oats in a bowl.
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Rub between your fingers until it is well combined and doesn’t stick to your fingers and then put to one side.
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Place the butter and demerara sugar in a bowl and cream together until pale
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Add the flour, vanilla bean paste, eggs and water and then beat until well combined.
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Fold in half the apples and blackberries
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Pour into the tin
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Scatter the remaining apples and blackberries on top and add the crumble mixture to cover the fruit.
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Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until cooked through. Use a clean sharp knife through the highest point to check if its done. The knife should leave the cake clean.
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Gently remove the cake from its tin and allow to cool before cutting into squares. You can get 12 larger squares or 16 smaller ones out of this recipe.
Enjoy!
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jenny paulin says
August 13, 2014 at 9:20 pmoooh yum i do love a tray bake and i also love crumble so this is perfect x
Dave says
November 27, 2014 at 10:05 amThese look great!! If I don’t have demarara sugar though is it possible to use a different type?
Steve Nixon says
November 27, 2014 at 10:34 amHi Dave, thanks for your comment! Although I haven’t tried it another way I would think light brown sugar would be a good alternative!
canvas prints says
January 26, 2015 at 5:12 pmThis looks really yummy. Im going to go and get all the kitchen utensils out now and get cooking. great post by the way.
Pam says
September 20, 2015 at 3:38 pmJust made the blackberry & apple crumble tray bake cake for Sunday lunch and it went down a treat. I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of bean paste and I also threw in crushed oat biscuits instead of porridge oats as it’s all down to what’s in the cupboard. I’ll definitely make it again. Thanks guys!
Steve Nixon says
September 21, 2015 at 10:09 amHi Pam! Thanks for your comment! I’m really glad you enjoyed it!
Noelle Lynne says
December 22, 2017 at 9:25 pmMhmmm this sounds and looks delicious! Crumble topping is my favorite, going to try and make a vegan version of this for Christmas morning, thank you so much for sharing!
Steve Nixon says
December 22, 2017 at 9:31 pmThanks Noelle! What would you use as vegan substitutes? I’ll admit I do t know much about vegan diets so wouldn’t know where to start!
Jody says
December 24, 2017 at 4:55 pmYum! This looks so good I just may have to break my baking hiatus and try this.