Blackberry and apple cake

Sep 14, 2018

I’ve wanted to get more use out of coconut flour for a long time.  It's such a great alternative to wheat flour in baking, if you want to reduce the sugars in your diet.  It’s low in carbohydrate, as well as having many health giving properties.  But it’s the flour equivalent of Dracula. It will happily suck all the life, moisture and interest out of your cake if you’re not careful.  As I’ve learnt.

After some research and careful cake engineering, I’ve finally hit upon this combo of ingredients and quantities.  It’s produced this lovely little carefree cake – as light and cheeky as they come. 

By the time the coconut flour part was cracked, the wild blackberry spots that I know of had been plundered.  But maybe there are still a few berries left in the hedgerows in secret places you know.  The sharpness of the wild berries gives their sweetness so much more clout and character than the shop bought ones.   But then happily this is also the season for scrumptious, tangy English apples, so this cake is still pretty goddamned tasty.

FOR THE CAKE
2 small apples grated
200g blackberries + 6 or so more for decoration
5 eggs
100g melted butter
2 tbsp xylitol
25g coconut flour
150g almond flour
1 tsp of psyllium husks
2 fl oz milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla essence
Zest of one lemon or 1 tsp of lemon flavouring
1½  tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

FOR THE TOPPING
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tbsp. xylitol
25g chilled butter
2 tbsp coconut flour

First make the topping:
Put the flour, cinnamon and xylitol in a bowl and mix together well.
Chop the butter into small pieces and rub into the flour and sweetener until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
Set to one side.

Then off we go with the cake itself:
Whizz the eggs and xylitol until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla essence and lemon zest (or lemon flavouring).
Slowly add the melted butter to the egg mixture, whisking some more until blended.
In a separate bowl, add the almond flour, coconut flour and psyllium husks, then mix together thoroughly – making sure there are no lumps.
Add salt, cinnamon and baking powder and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir in.
Stir in the grated apple and mix well.
Add the milk.
Finally stir in the blackberries.
Empty the cake batter into a 23cm square tin, lined with baking paper. 
Scatter the remaining blackberries over the top for decoration, then sprinkle over the topping.

Put into a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/ 325F 140C for 1 hour and 15 minutes – or until a knife put into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
(Check the cake at 50 minutes to see how it’s doing.  If the top of the cake is beginning to burn, cover with foil until it’s fully cooked)
Leave in the tin to cool.  Store in a container in the fridge.