Ray Of Sunshine

A ray of sunshine would have been much appreciated after days and days of dull stormy weather, but alas it wasn’t meant to be, not here anyway.

So to bring a little of the tropics to cold, wet Staffordshire I decided to bake a cake - a blueberry & coconut one to be exact. It gave me the perfect chance to test out another recipe idea for my book and to use a couple of well travelled gifts, i.e. coconut jam from Kate in Singapore and a sunflower silicone mould from the delightful Carlotta in Italy.

I wanted to give the cake a little bit of a twist, it wasn’t to become another same old same old sponge with a filling; yes they’re fabulous but sometimes something slightly different is a wonderful thing. So have I got you wondering? I do hope so.

Well I decided to give the cake a crumble type base. I’ve seen many cakes with a crumbly topping but the idea of using that as a base appealed to me. It was very effective taste-wise but made the cake very difficult to slice and present well – not a major problem it could be argued but we eat with our eyes first and messy presentation just doesn’t suit me.

The aim was to have a layer of coconut jam between the sponge and crumble but it ended up working its way into the sponge and crumble, giving lovely sticky patches of sponge and chewy patches of crumble – even more delightful than the separate and obvious layer I’d been aiming for.

I used frozen blueberries, they seem much more suited to baking than fresh because they break down so much easier, leaching their deep purple juices into the creamy cake, very pretty indeed.

The Recipe:

Base:

100 g plain flour
80 g rolled oats
150 g unsalted butter
100 g caster sugar
40 g demerara sugar

Cake:

180 g unsalted butter
200 g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon coconut flavouring
185 g self raising flour
100 g blueberries (frozen)
200 g coconut jam

Make the base. Place all the ingredients, except the oats, in a food processor and blitz until they form crumbs. Stir the oats through and place in a dish. Put in the freezer until required.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food mixer and beat (using the paddle attachment) until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs gradually, whilst beating well, then add the coconut flavouring.
Add the flour and mix well before folding through the blueberries. Pour into a 26 cm silicone mould (shape of your choice) and squeeze over the coconut jam, gently spread over the surface.
Top with the crumble mix, ensuring the layer is even and to the edges of the tin.
Bake at 180 C or the equivalent for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and leave until cold before turning out.