Blackberry & Apple Loaf recipe

Can you believe that blackberries are already ripe? Even Bella has been eating them!

I love blackberries especially as they remind me of Autumn – Autumn really is one of my favourite seasons with the changing colour of the leaves on the trees, cosy nights and the excuse for big bowls of spaghetti bolognese with even bigger glasses of Malbec 🙂

However, for the moment it is still summer, so we should make the most of the early blackberries and I suggest a blackberry and apple loaf!

This is really straight forward to make and it tastes gorgeous! I do have one word of advice… Don’t wrap it up, put in a bag and leave said bag on the floor as you’ll  be left with tin foil and a rather sheepish looking dog. I hope you enjoyed my cake, Bella!

Ingredients

• 250 grams of self-raising flour
• 175 grams of butter
• 175 grams of muscovado sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of demerara sugar
• 1 smallish eating apple
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 1 lemon, finely zested
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 225 grams of blackberries
• Large loaf tin

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C if you have a fan oven), then butter the tin, you could line it if you wish but I didn’t. Now prepare to get your hands sticky by rubbing together the flour, butter and muscovado sugar until it resembles fine crumbs. To make the lovely crunchy topping, measure out 5 tablespoons of this mixture into a small bowl and mix the demerara sugar and cinnamon in. Now set this aside for later.
2. Coarsely grate the apple down to the core (watch your fingers!) and mix it in with the eggs and zest. Stir in the baking powder into the rubbed in mixture in the large bowl, then stir in the egg mixture quite gently and quickly until it drops from the spoon. Make sure that you don’t over-mix it.
3. Gently fold in around three quarters of the blackberries, I used a wooden spoon and it was fine, and try not to break them up too much. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level. Scatter the remaining berries over the top. Now’s the time to add your topping and sprinkle it over the top and cook for around 1hr 15 – 1hr 25 mins. Check the loaf after about 50 minutes to make sure it’s not browning too much and if it is, just put some foil on top. I however, like a bit of crunch.
4. Leave the loaf in the tin for about 30 minutes (difficult when it smells so good!), before turning out onto a wire wrack to cool.

Now there’s nothing left to do but enjoy!

Enjoy!

A xx