Vegan Apple and Blackberry Crumb Cake

A delicious one-layer cake full of seasonal apples and blackberries!

This recipe is inspired by the delicious apple and blackberry crumble my Nana makes every year. Especially when the best of the British apples and blackberries are in season. I prefer to use either Jazz, Cox or Braeburn apples as I prefer their flavours - not too sharp, quite juicy and sweet and a little crunch, I don't want mushy apples in my cake. The reason for making a cake instead of a crumble though, firstly because I enjoy my Nana's so much I don't think I could bear to make my own and I do find a crumble needs a bit of a base that you can get with a crumb cake. Crumbles are such a comfort dessert especially as the weather drops so I wanted this crumb cake to be exactly that and I believe it to be perfect cake for the start of autumn. if you're a lover of cakes and crumbles, this is the recipe for you. Best served with a pool of thick custard or madagascan vanilla ice cream for some extravagance. 

If you love apples and blackberries.... 

Check out my other dessert recipes for more inspiration!

• Irish Apple Cake
• Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Muffins
• Apple Banana Bread

Recipe

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook: 50-55 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients

Cake

• 300g Self-raising flour
• 200g Caster sugar
• 150g Butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2g salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 300ml Soya milk + 25ml Apple cider vinegar
• 200-250g apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
• 200g Blackberries

Crumble topping

• 30g Plain flour
• 30g Porridge oats
• 30g Caster sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 30g chilled diced butter
• 25g Flaked almonds
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170℃ and line a springform 9 inch cake tin with baking paper. 
2. Make the crumble topping first. Put the diced cold butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour to make a light breadcrumb texture. Add the oats and flaked almonds and mix together. 
3. Keep in the fridge whilst you prepare the cake. 
4. Make the cake. Combine the soya milk with the ACV to make a 'buttermilk' - will look curdled which is good.
5. In a large bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, sugars and baking powder. 
6. Pour in the vanilla, melted butter and 'buttermilk' and whisk together to form a thick batter.
7. Fold in the apple cubes and blackberries then spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin.
8. Remove the crumble from the fridge and sprinkle on top of the cake evenly. Then bake in the oven for 1 hour until a knife inserted comes out clean, and the crumble is golden and crispy. 
9. Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before removing then serve. Best stored covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
10. Best served with heapings of vegan custard or a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Christina

xx