blackberry and almond cakes- a recipe

Picking blackberries, like the berry itself, is bittersweet. Right now, it’s the height of summer, but by the time of the last of the berries, night will be longer than day, and the leaves will be falling to a bed of swirling fire.

Alongside the blackberries, in the hedgerows, the first elderberries are ripening to a pearlescent black. Both berries can be found along pretty much any path or track right now, making these cakes both seasonal and forageable. The cakes would work with any berry, so use whatever you can forage for, or just scatter on your no.1 berry.

There’s no beating needed here, and with just 10 minutes baking, the result is light and crisp.

180g butter

50g flour

160g icing sugar

90g ground almonds

5 egg whites

a couple of handfuls of berries

Preheat the oven t 180C/c and melt the butter.

Pour the icing sugar, flour and almonds into a bowl.

Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, tip in the egg whites and butter and stir it all in. Then it’s ready to be poured into the muffin tins.

Sprinkle in three or four chopped blackberries into each cake and bake for 10-15 minutes.

The berries stain the sponge with the blood of late summer. The texture is like a good brownie- soft, fudgy centre and a crispy coat.

Forage, bake, eat.

7 thoughts on “blackberry and almond cakes- a recipe”

mcgregrr

August 27, 2014 at 12:02 pm Reply

Those almond cakes – made them yesterday, and then they – disappeared. Thanks.

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1. tommycopestake
  
  August 27, 2014 at 9:13 pm Author Reply
  
  That’s the problem of bite sized cakes! Thank you 🙂 are you starting a similar blog?
  
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  1. scriptorsenex
    
    August 28, 2014 at 5:37 pm
    
    Karen lives in Canada so that looks like your first international reader! I think her blog header was started a long time ago but maybe one day she will blog. I think I may have a go t those cakes this week-end they look delirious.
    
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mcgregrr

August 29, 2014 at 1:17 pm Reply

Starting a blog a New is Year’s resolution gone bad. Looking at others’ fine work is much less taxing! I got started on WordPress a couple of times, but ran into trouble and quit. I study other blogs for format, content, and aesthetics – and think, “maybe . . .”. Yours is a model – thanks!

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Gunn4

August 21, 2015 at 7:28 am Reply

Yummy! I wonder if raspberries would work. May try today! Thank you for sharing.

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1. tommycopestake
  
  August 21, 2015 at 8:39 am Author Reply
  
  I actually tried it with raspberries last week! Do it!
  
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Gunn4

August 21, 2015 at 10:01 am Reply

Going to plot today to collect some raspberries! Which flour did you use?

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