Crumble cake

As the fact that I'm going to be off to France for a whole scary year in about two months starts to feel a bit more real (one-way flight has now been booked - agh!) I decided to make a deliciously English cake.

Blackberry Raspberry Crumble Cake

• 190g butter
• 190g plain flour
• 190g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 30ml milk 
• Half a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 150g of raspberries and blackberries (frozen or fresh)
• 50g walnuts or pecans (chopped up)

Pre-heat your oven to 170c and grease a loaf tin. Whiz your butter and sugar together for ages until it's nice and fluffy - it is best to use an electric mixer but if you're braving it and doing it by hand then I salute you. Mix in the three eggs one by one, then chuck in the dry ingredients and milk and mix really well. Add the fruit and the chopped nuts - the recipe I was using asked for pecans but I only had walnuts (we all know the walnut is inferior to the glorious pecan) but in the end the walnuts worked really well so the choice is yours! Little warning: if you're using frozen fruit you may need to leave your cake in the oven for a bit longer because the frozen-ness of the berries messes up how quickly your cake cooks.

Lovely Crumbly Topping

• 20g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 50g soft light brown sugar
• 30g chopped up walnuts (or pecans)

Rub together the butter and flour with your fingertips until you have little breadcrumbs and then rub in the sugar and the nuts. Sprinkle this over your fruity cake and then pop it in the oven for about an hour. When it's done you should be able to stick a knife right into the middle of the cake and it should come out clean.

Leave it to cool a little bit before tipping it out of the tin - your lovely English cake is done!