Gooseberry crumble cake recipe

I make a gooseberry crumble cake each summer, sometimes tinkering with the recipe so that it is more cake than crumble, or vice versa. This year I think I have the ratio about right, and the two layers carry enough natural sweetness to balance the sourness of the gooseberries. Once you involve double cream or vanilla ice-cream what is a tea-time cake becomes a dessert.

Serves 8

butter 125g
caster sugar 125g
eggs 3 medium
plain flour 75g
baking powder 1 level tsp
ground almonds 75g
gooseberries 325g

For the crumble:
plain flour 110g
butter 80g
demerara sugar 3 tbsp
You will also need a 20cm, deep-sided, springform cake tin.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy. This is best done using a food mixer. Stir together the flour, baking powder and ground almonds. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork or small whisk.

Make the crumble. Rub the 80g of butter, in small pieces, into the flour then stir in the demerara sugar and set aside. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4.

Line the cake tin.

Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, to the creamed butter and caster sugar. If the mixture starts to curdle, then add a few tbsp of the flour mixture to bring it together. Mix in the flour, baking powder and almonds.

Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface. Scatter the gooseberries evenly over the mixture. Trickle a teaspoon or two of cold water over the crumble and shake the dish so the crumbs form a mixture of fine and coarse lumps. Tip the crumble over the gooseberries then bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until lightly firm.

Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to rest until cool. Run a palette knife carefully around the edge of the cake after 15 minutes or so, to loosen it. Remove the cake from the tin and serve.

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