Saturday 30 August 2014

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. 



12 comments:

  1. Well done for saving those plums! They sound like a lovely addition to the cake and as I'm craving crumbles at the moment that is an extra winning feature for me =)

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    1. They were a great addition to the cake. I love crumble cake.

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  2. I'm loving all the autumn flavoured bakes that are starting to pop up online. Wishing I could have a massive slice of this with my cuppa right now!

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  3. Plums are so lovely in cake. This looks delightful, with a nice combination of textures too!

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely lovely, must bake with them more often

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  4. Stunning stunning cake. I have a massive bag of plums (filthy!) and now I know what to do with them !

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  5. What a cracking looking cake - right up my street! I love how people share their home grown produce - it's usually really good too!

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    Replies
    1. I'm lucky to get a glut of homegrown produce from work colleagues

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  6. What a gorgeous recipe! Love all that seasonal fruit in it :) Thank you for sharing with the No Waste Food Challenge, Shop Local and Simple and in Season :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for hosting and glad you enjoyed the cake :)

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