This has to be one of the nicest cakes I have ever made.
The recipe comes from this book which I spotted on the Happy Foodie website recently and, for once, not being able to go hunting in charity shops for cheap books, I treated myself to brand new, full price book. It was not expensive and is full of lovely recipes. The cake is pictured on the cover.
In the book it's called an any fruit streusel cake and that appealed to me. I do like recipes that you can adapt to what you have in the house. On this occasion I had some strawberries and blueberries.
The cake is made using the rubbed in method. I rarely do rubbing in by hand and usually use the food processor. This time I had no choice because I took a tumble in the woods last week, landing head first on my face and hands. The black eyes have healed up but the nose and heel of my hands are still sore. Rubbing in by hand was not an option! I was also in a bit of a rush, guests coming for a socially distanced lunch in the garden in a couple of hours.
The streusel topping is made separately, then the cake. I remembered to stop the processing of the topping mixture so that it was still quite lumpy and not too fine. It worked really well.
The cake took quite a bit longer than stated to cook and was still slightly warm when I served it for dessert with a little pouring cream. It was worth the wait, delicious with a nice, even crumb and the fruit didn't sink! Perfect for a sunny summer afternoon in the garden.
I can hardly wait to make it again, maybe using pears, raspberries, blackberries, cherries or maybe plums or apricots, or a combination. I just love recipes like this! You can see it here. I have also given my method using the food processor.
Ingredients
For the topping
50g cold butter, cubed
75g plain flour
50g demerara sugar
50g flaked almonds
For the cake
125g cold butter, cubed
225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 tblsp milk (approx.)
300g a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, any combination
Method
First make the streusel topping by putting the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until the stage of large breadcrumbs with a few lumpy bits (so not too fine). Tip the mixture into a small bowl, add the sugar and flaked almonds and stir to mix together. Set aside.
Butter and base line a 23cm springform cake tin. Preheat the oven to 170C / 150 fan / gas mk 4.
Without washing the food processor bowl, make the cake mixture. Put the flour and baking powder in and blitz for a couple of seconds to mix. Add the butter and process until the fine breadcrumbs stage. Then add the sugar, eggs and 2 tblsp of the milk. Process until smooth and add a little more milk if necessary to get a dropping consistency.
Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the top. Chop or cut in half any larger pieces of fruit and arrange on top of the cake mixture. Sprinkle the streusel mixture on top of that.
Bake for 35-40 minutes (mine took 55 minutes) until done and the cake passes the skewer test.
Leave in the tin to cool for 15 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
Cuts into 6-8 slices.