Apple Cake with Blackberries is the perfect way to serve my foraging finds. When I started making this recipe it was before lockdown, I had foraged blackberries and apples. Although the apples are still abundant, the wild blackberries are not within walking distance so I have resorted to using frozen ones (foraged earlier in the year).
As it’s still apple season, apple trees laden with fruit are dotted along the country roads, their random locations probably due to people throwing apple cores out car windows while driving. It felt wrong to let all that food go to waste and I enjoy a walk in the fresh air (which is permitted during lockdown at moment).
I initially developed this recipe with an ordinary cake tin, but I found the results better when I used the bundt cake tin instead. There’s something about using bundt cake tins, they make a cake look a little fancier, without any extra effort. Also, the central chimney design means that there is more cake batter touching the sides and there’s no soggy centre and overbaked outer-edge.
Apple Cake with Blackberries
Ingredients
- 270g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 150g golden caster sugar or caster sugar
- zest of 2 lemons
- 280mls oat milk or other plant-based milk
- 125ml canola oil or other neutral oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 30mls lemon juice
- 3 cups apples – 1cm dice, approximately 300g
- agar agar or Jel-it-in
- 2-3 cups blackberries, you can use frozen
- icing sugar for dusting
Method
Preheat the oven to 170ºC with a rack in the middle of the oven.
Put all the dry ingredients and lemon zest into a mixing bowl, then whisk to combine. Add diced apple and whisk again to coat the apple.
Pour the measured, wet ingredients into a jug and mix them together. Add to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix.
Pour into a greased bundt tin.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the deepest part of the cake.
Let the cake rest in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack.
If using a bundt tin, it should hold 1200 – 1350mls of water. (Alternatively, you can also use a 19.5cm cake tin.)
Blackberries
Put blackberries and a cup of water in a small pot and gently heat to defrost blackberries. Taste the liquid and sweeten if needed. Scoop out the blackberries and set aside.
To make the blackberry gel set on the cake, add 1/2 a sachet of jel-it-in or enough agar flakes or powder to get a soft set jelly – follow instructions on the packaging.
Sprinkle the setting agent in the blackberry liquid and stir, then bring to the boil to activate.
Remove from heat and sit the pot in a bowl of cold water. Stir until it’s starting to set, then add the blackberries back to the gel and decorate the cake. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
If you have foraged for apples and unsure of the variety, taste one first. If, like me, you can end up with too many apples, this elegant Apple Tart is perfect for a dinner party or Baked Apples are easy to make for a family pudding. Blackberry and Apple Muffins are another way to use this Autumn fruit combo.
