Spelt, Apple, Blackberry & Cobnut Cake
If you’re located in the city, it can be hard to reconcile romantic ideas of autumn (a time of plenty, harvest festival) with the reality of ever shorter, darker days. This cake puts two ingredients together that make the season worth celebrating: apples and blackberries. Paired with warming spices, they make the most delicious treat to watch the leaves fall and rain patter on your windowpane.
I store apples from the garden in my shed for winter usage, blackberries have been picked and frozen in batches to dip into for crumbles and cakes throughout the rest of the year.
Windfall Apples, foraged Blackberries & Cobnuts
Feel free to substitute the fresh blackberries used here for frozen, or even for other fruits, the supermarkets generally sell mixed bags of frozen berries which also works so well. All you really need is something small and sweetly tangy to cut through the sweetness of the sponge.
I have used white spelt in the sponge mix but I have also blended white and wholemeal spelt flour in the past, it makes for a slightly heavier cake yet still delicious. Serve with pouring cream or Greek style yogurt such as Tims Dairy yogurt
Spelt, Apple, Blackberry & Cobnut Crumble Cake
Ingredients
- 190 g White Spelt flour
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom you can substitute this with ginger
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- a pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 65 ml whole milk
- 135 g unsalted butter melted, cooled to room temperature
- 160 g caster sugar
- grated zest of half a lemon
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 2 small dessert apples peeled cored and diced
- 160 g blackberries
- For the Crumble
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 80 g White or Wholemeal Spelt Flour
- 40 g Light Brown Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- approx. 50g Chopped Cobnuts or Hazelnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm (8in) spring form cake tin and line with baking parchment.
- To make the crumble topping: In a bowl, rub the butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, add the nuts. Put to one side.
- Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, salt into large bowl. Mix the grated zest of the lemon with the prepared apples and blackberries.
- In a standard food mixer beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract and cooled melted butter until really thick and creamy; this will take about 5 minutes on high speed. With a large metal spoon fold in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk,. Don’t over mix as this will result in a tough cake.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, scatter the apples and blackberries on the cake mix, pushing them down a little. Now sprinkle with the crumble mixture, bake in the preheated oven for approximately 50-60 minutes or when a skewer is inserted in the centre of the cake and comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the tin for about 15 minutes, then remove. Serve warm with cream.
Spelt, Apple, Blackberry & Cobnut Cake with Cream
