What would a cake version of apple crumble be like? This is the thought that struck me during a walk on Sunday. It was a bit of a random one, even for me, but was started when I smelt some cinnamon and went from there. I think because the weather was turning autumnal it made me think about winter cooking which always leads to crumble.
The Thew started it by getting excited about the fact that we’re entering the time of year when slow cooking moves up the agenda and our flat is filled with the smell of stews, pulled pork and lamb shoulder. I get quite excited about this because it means that if I have a Sunday at home I can pretty much do all the dinners for the week in one day. Some sort of slow cooked meat on the bottom of the oven and various stews on the middle and top shelves. Stews are always better after a day or two so reheating them during the week always makes them better.
The smell of these herald autumn along with those wonderful spices that start to conjure up the idea of winter. Cinnamon is one of my favourite spices and I liberally sprinkle it in every cake and dessert that I can. Therefore the jump from smelling cinnamon to crumble was not a large one. Thus started a search for recipes. This is one I found with some of my own twists.
This recipe uses a food processor to whizz the first bit together. If you don’t have one just use an electric whisk but thought I’d try out something in a food processor as I don’t normally use one. It was fine and there is a bit of speed in its use.
Ingredients
Cake
140g butter
250g self raising flour
3 tsp ground cinnamon
140g light muscovado sugar
100g sultanas
3 large eggs, beaten
2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped (about 1cm square pieces but don’t panic about it)
5 tbsp whole milk
Topping
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
25g butter
25g light muscovado sugar
2 heaped tbsp hazelnuts
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Heat the oven to GM4, 180 and line a loaf tin.
2. Topping first! Whack the hazelnuts in the food processor and whizz them into small pieces. Put to one side. Then put the butter, sugar, plain flour and cinnamon in and whizz into breadcrumb type texture. Put in a bowl and mix in the hazelnuts. Leave in the fridge until you need.
3. Now for the cake. Put the self raising flour, cinnamon and butter in the processor and whizz together. Then put in the sugar and mix.
4. Tip the mixture into a bowl and add the raisins, eggs, apple and milk. Mix well. It will be fairly chunky as there is a lot of fruit in there.
5. Put the cake mixture in the tin and smooth over. Sprinkle the topping evenly on top and put in the oven for about an hour – you want a skewer to come out clean.
Now, it may need to stay in longer. When I made this I had it on a lower heat and it took forever until a whacked it up to GM5. Basically because it uses cooking apples they need time to get nice and squishy. I am going to make this again as one of my work colleagues suggested that because the topping is so good it should be made in a shallower tray to allow more topping. Revised version will follow I’m sure.
