Autumn Traybake

I love blackberries. They are, in my humble opinion, the jewels of berries. I think it helps that they grow in abundance behind my home and I love the idea of free & freshly collected food. This is a great crowd pleaser and is perfect for an autumnal dessert served warm with lashings of custard. If you want to pimp it up add the hazelnuts but it is beautiful without too. One thing that's REALLY important though, make sure the stewed fruit is totally chilled before using it.

Fruit layer
2 dessert apples peeled, cored and sliced
250g blackberries
100g blueberries
4 tbsp caster
1 vanilla pod

Crumble topping
50g unsalted butter
100g plain flour
50g chopped hazelnuts
40g Demerara sugar

Sponge

320g Stork

270g sugar

320g self-raising flour

5 eggs

A good few hours before you start to bake your cake, place the fruits and 4 tbsp caster sugar into a pan with a splash of water, reserving about 15 blackberries. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 mins, take off of the heat and add the vanilla pod and the reserved berries, leave to cool the pop into the fridge to chill completely.

You will also need a 28cm x 22cm tin, greased and lined with baking parchment.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3.

Tip all of the cake ingredients into the bowl of a free-standing machine and beat  until smooth. If you don’t have a free-standing machine, you can use an electric hand-held mixer. 

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and spread level using a palette knife. With a slotted spoon swirl the cooled stewed fruits onto the cake batter making sure to remove the vanilla pod and reserve the fruit syrup. 

Next rub together the crumble topping ingredients and scatter over the fruits. 

Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until well risen, golden and when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Serve warm with the reserved fruit syrup and custard, cream or ice-cream or all 3!!