My favourite tv programme, The Great British Bake off is back on our screens! After episode 1 aired last week I’ve taken a liking to Manon and Briony in particular. My bets are on either of these two bakers winning this year. But, I would love to see another man win a series and I’m hoping Anthony could be a dark horse and shine through.
This year I’m going to try and run a recipe series alongside the show. Inspired by each weeks theme I will create plantbased equivalent, that are just as beautiful and most importantly, taste divine. This week is Cake week and the signature challenge required the bakers to make traybakes. The weather is cooling in England, the leaves starting to golden and the geese are becoming restless, flocking and flying back and forth over my house. These suggestions of autumn have had me craving apple and blackberry crumble.
To meet the criteria of the signature challenge and satisfy my hankering for comforting bowls of crumble I created this goodie.
I’ve always been generous with the crumble topping when making this pudding, and this rule still applies when making this cake. A moist, apple sponge and sweetly, sharp blackberry jam sit on top of a digestive like, biscuit base. The sponge is then sprinkled with more chopped apple, fresh blackberries and showered with a more oaty crumble.
This cake is guaranteed to make you star baker amongst friends and family, and worthy of a Hollywood handshake! 😉
(This recipe makes an 8×8″ tin and cuts into 12 slices)
INGREDIENTS:
biscuit base & crumble
- 200g wholemeal self-raising flour
- 50g oats
- pinch of salt
- 150ml sunflower oil
- 4-5 tbsp oat mylk (or any other plantbased or normal milk)
sponge
- 150ml aquafaba (should be all the liquid from a 400g can of legumes or beans)
- 250g apple puree
- 1/2 an apple, grated (I used Braeburn but any sweet variety will work great)
- pinch of salt
- 300g wholemeal self-raising flour
- tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 4 tbsp blackberry jam
- 1/2 apple, diced
- handful of blackberries
METHOD:
1. Preheat the oven to 170 or 160 degrees for fan assisted ovens. Grease and line an 8×8″ square cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. To make the crumble dough, place 200g flour, 50g oats, pinch of salt and sunflower oil in a large bowl. With your hands like pincers, rub and pinch the mixture until you get a rubbly texture. Remove a fifth of the mixture and set aside for later and then pour 4-5 tbsp of mylk into the large bowl until the rubbly mix just, comes together. Press the dough into the tin, using the back of a spoon to help level the surface. Bake the base for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the sponge. Squeeze as much of the juice from the grated apple, in a large bowl mix the grated apple, aquafaba, puree and salt until emulsified. Gently fold in the bicarb and flour until evenly combined.
4. Spread the jam over the biscuit based, dollop spoonful’s of the sponge mix on top and level the surface. Sprinkle over the reserved crumble, diced apple and fresh blackberries. Bake the traybake for 40-45 minutes until springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean with the odd crumb.
5. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices and serve on its own, or slightly warm with ice-cream, custard or cream for a luxurious dessert. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
