This week the weather has made a definite turn into autumn and with storms blowing around outside it seems the perfect time to turn to comforting tea-time treats. This weekend I thought I'd have a go at creating a new recipe for my own Blueberry Crumble Cakes and at the same time try out my new mini-loaf pans. It's hard to judge from the photo but the cake is actually pretty generous - large enough for two servings at least.
- Blueberry Compote - I made this one with oodles of ginger, a touch of cinnamon and vanilla and a dash of amaretto liquor for sweetness. The flavours of the compote will be muted by the butter, eggs and sugar in everything else so the compote needs to be pretty feisty when tried on its own. (NB it also needs to be cooked until the liquid is almost a syrup to avoid a soggy cake!)
- Almond Cake Mix - I love almonds in pretty much any form and I quite often use a mix of half self-raising flour and half ground almonds in my cakes. This gives you a lovely moist cake with lots of texture and flavour (for flavour real butter and plenty of eggs help too!!)
- Oat Crumble Topping - I added a little more cinnamon to the crumble topping to pick up on the flavours in the blueberry compote although the real point of this layer is to add a contrasting texture to the soft cake below. To help get the pebbly crunch I was after I added a few drops of water to the crumble and mixed through with a fork before adding to the top of the cakes and baking.
This batch seem to have gone pretty well - although I think I will keep playing with some of those flavours and perhaps up the quantity of blueberries next time I make these - I never can stop making little adjustments each time I bake....
