Gooseberry Crumble Cake

I mentioned in a previous post that I was given a large amount of fresh gooseberries from a colleague's garden. When I was looking for recipes, I came across this gooseberry crumble cake recipe by Nigel Slater. I followed his recipe and added a sprinkle of brown sugar on top before baking and the cake turned out beautifully. I'm not a fan of gooseberries mainly because they are too tart for me and have a very squidgy texture but in this cake it's absolutely delicious. The sponge is light and I loved the crumble topping. The gooseberries themselves tasted great! J got to taste test the gooseberry and orange drizzle cake as well as this one and he said this cake won hands down. I'm definitely making this again but with the addition of almond flakes on top as it will add extra nuttiness and crunch to the cake. I've been given even more gooseberries so looks like I'll be baking with them for the next few weeks or months!

I'm sending this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren as gooseberries are in season.

I'm also sending it to Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. The gooseberries are fresh from my colleague's garden.

 lovely fresh gooseberries 

 cake batter 

 add fresh gooseberries on top 

 add crumble mix 

 I decided to sprinkle some brown sugar on top 

 fresh from the oven

 You can just see the gooseberries under the crumblelayer here 

Recipe from Nigel Slater - scroll to second recipe on the page. The only change I made was to sprinkle some brown sugar on top before baking. 

Blackberry, Lemon and Vanilla Cheesecake

J's favourite fruit is blackberries and he is always asking for a blackberry dessert. Luckily I had a large box of blackberries from my colleague's garden in the freezer. I've made numerous crumbles with them but this time I wanted to make something a little special. J also loves cheesecake hence this blackberry, lemon and vanilla cheesecake. The inspiration for this recipe was a lovely two layer cheesecake but unfortunately mine looks nothing like that! However, it tasted heavenly and that's what really counts. I made a vanilla layer using vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste and a blackberry & lemon layer. The blackberry layer was a little tart and paired perfectly with the sweeter vanilla layer. 

I'm sending this to  Four Seasons Food hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and co hosted by Anneli from Delicieux. The theme this month is "getting fruity".

It also fits in to Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This challenge was created to highlight produce from local sources. The blackberres in this recipe came from a colleague's garden. 

 digestive biscuit base 

  blackberry mix on the left and vanilla mix on the right 

 ready to go in the oven 

 after baking for about 25 minutes 

 adding vanilla mix on top which mostly sunk to the middle, pushing the blackberry layer to the outside 

 

Recipe adapted from ivillage.com
40g butter
300mls sour cream
18-20 digestive biscuits
900g cream cheese
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
220g caster sugar
180mls milk
4 eggs
360g frozen blackberries
zest and juice of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Melt the butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan.
• Blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor and stir in the melted butter. 
• Press into the bottom of a lined 23cm springform tin making sure that the biscuits also go partway up the sides of the tin.
• Place in the fridge to chill whilst you make the filling. 
• Beat the cream cheese and sugar until combined. 
• Add in the milk then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Add in the sour cream and continue mixing until smooth.
• Divide the mixture evenly between 2 large bowls. 
• In a food processor, puree approximately 300g of the blackberries with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. Pour into 1 of the cream cheese mix and stir in the whole blackberries.
• In the 2nd cream cheese mix, add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste and mix well.
• Pour the blackberry filling on to the biscuit base and bake for approximately 25 minutes  (recipe said 10 minutes but even 25 minutes was not enough for me - it probably needs 35-40 minutes) 
• Remove the cheesecake from the oven and pour the vanilla filling on top.
• Return to the oven and continue baking for another hour or until the top is set.
• Chill in the fridge before serving. 

Apple, Plum and Almond Crumble Cake

My colleague brought in a huge basket of plums to work from her garden. We ate some of it but there was so many left I decided I'd take some home and bake something with it. I started thinking about flavour combinations and in the end decided on this apple, plum and almond crumble cake. The cake was declared one of the best bakes of the year. 

The cake is lightly spiced with chunks of apple which added a lovely freshness to the cake. The crumble topping added a lovely layer of texture and flavour with the ground almonds and oats. The plums were tart but still retained their shape and moisture after baking and paired well with the toasted almond flakes. The cake is delicious on its own but would go well with some custard or cream. 

I'm entering this to several blogging challenges this month. Firstly to the Rix Aga Inspired Recipe Competition where the theme is plums. 

Simple and in Season hosted this month by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for Ren from RenBehan.com. It's definitely plum season as these came fresh from my colleague's garden.

Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This challenge was created to highlight produce from local sources. The plums in this recipe came from a colleague's garden. 

The No Waste Food Challenge which is run by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This month, it's guest hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The plums were bountiful and would have gone to waste otherwise.

Update 19th January 2015

This recipe has been published in House of Fraser's 'The Blogger's Recipe Book'  I was pleased to have been invited by the team at House of Fraser Home Department to participate in this project. They've compiled an assortment of recipes from bloggers and it features both sweet and savoury recipes. There are lots of familiar bloggers in there and a few new ones that I've not come across on my blog travels. I'm not sure if the book itself will be for general sale but once I know I will update this post again. 

 The recipe book 

 My bio 

 My recipe

 adding chunks of apple to the batter 

 place the cake batter in the tin 

 top with the crumble 

 arrange the sliced plums on top 

 after baking for about 40 minutes - the middle will still be wobbly 

 add a sprinkle of almond flakes and continue baking until brown 

 fresh from the oven 

 you can see the chunks of apple at the bottom of the cake on the right side 

 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake

4 eggs = 259g (use the same amount of butter, flour and sugar) 

259g butter

259g caster sugar

259g self raising flour

2 red apples - peeled, cored and chopped

1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

0.5 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the crumble topping

90g butter

90g plain flour

90g light brown sugar

50g ground almonds

60g oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the topping

Handful of plums - cored and sliced

approximately 35g almond flakes

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
• Sift in the flour and mix well.
• Stir in the apple chunks by hand and pour into a 23cm round cake tin which has been lined. 
• Make the crumble topping by rubbing the butter and flour together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Stir in the sugar, ground almonds, oats and ground cinnamon.
• Pour the crumble topping on top of the cake batter and smooth the top with a spatula.
• Arrange the plum slices on top of the cake.
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes then remove from the oven - the middle will still be wobbly at this point but the outside of the cake should be cooked.
• Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top of the cake and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until the almonds are toasted and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
• If the almonds brown quickly, cover with foil and continue cooking until the cake is cooked. 

Apple Cinnamon Crumble Cake

There's a definite autumnal feel in the air which means crumble time! My colleague brought in bags of apples from her garden for us to enjoy. I decided to make an apple cinnamon custard crumble cake mainly because it contains a lot of  'C' s which is the letter for this month's AlphaBakes. Unfortunately, my custard split and I didn't have anymore milk to make a second batch so I had to leave it out. It would have tasted much better with a custard layer but it was extremely good on its own. The cake smelt amazing whilst baking mainly due to the cinnamon. The apples in the cake made it lovely and moist but my favourite part was the crunchy crumble topping. This is the first time I've used wholemeal flour for the crumble and it worked. Definitely a recipe to make again and again.

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter as mentioned is C for cinnamon and crumble.

 

I'm also sending this to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the idea is to make everything from scratch. It's been a while since I've entered anything so I'm pleased to join in this week.

And to a new blogging challenge called Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. These apples came from my colleagues garden so it was definitely locally sourced - not many carbon miles there :)

 I used a food processor to make my crumble 

 apples tossed in cinnamon and brown sugar 

 adding to the sponge batter 

 I placed some slices of apple on top - if you are using custard, add a layer here before adding the crumble mix 

 ready to go in the oven 

 freshly baked 

 yum! 

An original recipe by bakingaddict
Makes 1 x 23cm cake

For the sponge cake
225g butter
225g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
3 apples - peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
(+1 apple cut into slices to arrange on top of the cake - optional)
4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon brown sugar (or to taste)

For the cumble topping
120g butter
80g wholemeal flour
120g brown sugar
80g jumbo rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Make the crumble topping first by blitzing butter and flour in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can also do this by hand.
• Next add in the sugar, oats and cinnamon and pulse gently until mixed. 
• Place in the fridge whilst you make the cake. 
• To make the sponge, start by preparing the apples. Peel, core and cut them and then toss in cinnamon and brown sugar. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time
• Mix in the flour and baking powder.
• Finally stir in  the apples. 
• Pour the cake batter into a 23cm springform tin and level it off.
• Arrange slices of apples on top.
• If you want to add a custard layer - either homemade or shop bought then add it now.
• Pour the crumble mix on top. 
• Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes until golden brown and well risen. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.