Blackberry Apple Tea Cake

I know that I have told you before how much I love the magazine British Country Living. Amazing articles, great recipes, beautiful homes, and (compared to our pathetic American version) less advertising. But I bet a lot of you still haven't crept over to Barnes and Noble to check one out (for free!). When are you people gonna learn that I give amazing advice, he he ;)? Well, here is yet another example, this recipe is from one of last year's editions. I wanted to try it for sooo many reasons. One is just how simple it is. Another is the fact that I knew the grated apples would make this cake incredibly moist. I've made this twice so far, so you know I like it! The only sticky point is that all their recipes are in metric (duh!). But I have handily converted these for you, so you get all the joy and none of the brainy work. They also call things by different names and ask for self-rising flour (bah!), but I have sorted all that for you as well. I give the original recipe ingredients, and then my measurements will follow them in color.
 
This cake calls for:
200 grams softened butter, or 1 and 3/4 sticks
50 grams of caster sugar, or1/4 cup white granulated sugar 
100g demerara sugar, or 1/2 cup brown sugar, unpacked
drops of vanilla, I used a 1/2 tsp 
4 medium eggs, beaten
200g self-rising flour, or put 1/2tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking soda into a measuring cup and top with enough all-purpose flour to equal 1 and 1/2 cups. (I am assuming that no one out there has a 3/8th measuring spoon for the soda!)
a punnet of blackberries (which is about 250 grams) or approximately 1 and 1/3 cups blackberries, fresh or frozen
2 small dessert apples, grated (no small apples here, I used the Granny Smith's that were laying about)
6 Tablespoons blackberry jam (I prefer seedless since you already have whole berries)

The recipe says to preheat the oven to 190 Celsius (374 f), or 170 C (338 F) for a fan oven. I just stuck with my usual temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit for baking cakes, which is just in the middle of those two and turned out just right. 

Grease and flour your cake pan (this one is a 9 inch). Then beat together the butter and sugars, add the vanilla and eggs and mix well. Add the flour and then mix in the grated apples. The mixture may look curdled (see mine), it doesn't matter.  I folded in the berries to keep from breaking them. I did the jam differently each time. The original recipe simply says to gently stir in the jam without mixing too much and pour batter into pan. The first time (see pictures below) I put half of the batter in and added three of the Tbsps of jam, then topped with the rest of the batter and last 3 Tbsps jam and swirled. My idea was to have the jam through all the cake.

I threw a couple of fresh berries onto the top to bake just for aesthetics.

Here is how the first attempt baked up. They tell you to let it cool and then dust with powdered sugar and top with fresh berries. It was very moist and yummy! And it looks nice also.

But then I decided to make it again, and bake it in small pans I could give as gifts. This is the batter divided into two 6inch pans, and one 3 inch. And instead of layering the jam, I put it all on top and used my spatula to push it down, into the batter, at the same time I swirled it in a semi-circle. I love the dark jammy swirls and the deep purple color! They look so sticky and tempting...

You know that I love rustic looking cakes and pies. But even something humble is elevated when it is displayed on a lovely cake plate. You can find these quite affordably ($5-$12) at thrift and antique shops, because so few people use them anymore. I also love to hang them on the wall as decor. They are as gorgeous as fine art!

And here is the little lovely that I kept for us to eat. Small enough for two people to have both a breakfast and a dessert wedge.

This is a deliciously moist cake. The grated apple sees to that, without giving serious overtones of apple flavor. No, it is the blackberry that shines in this recipe. And you get the fleshy tenderness of the actual berries, plus the sweet swirls of jam to add that perfect extra touch.

I think it looks like it should be on a table for an English tea.

Here you can see a tiny shred of green apple with the berries. I didn't peel the Granny Smith's, but it cooked up so soft and tender that most people won't realize there is apple in it.

This summer has been such a wonderful one for fruits and berries that I have cooked with more fruit than chocolate for months- gasp! Here I finished a blackberry-apple cake, and made my blueberry-lemon cornmeal cake (in loaf form), see the recipe HERE. You can see I also had peaches ready to eat out of hand, and then make into crisps, and cobblers. So much good eating! And I still have blueberries and wild blackberries that I picked, tucked away in the freezer so that I can have these recipes again in the depths of winter doldrums :)