Controversially, blackberries are my favourite berry – yes, more than strawberries, I know! – so I’ll put them in anything I can around this time of year. I love how they jammy they become as they bleed into the sponge of a cake, and they just work so well with the texture of ground almonds and warmth of the cardamom. I feel like sometimes when we’re writing recipes we try and be all fancy and come up with crazy dessert ideas but honestly, I really love nothing more than a simple cake and this is my go-to base recipe. You’ve usually got all the ingredients you need lying around, and it’s such a good one to have up your sleeve throughout the seasons – just switch up the blackberries for any fruit of your choice really. Whatever is at its best.
Serves: 8-10
Photography: Safia Shakarchi
Season: Autumn
Ingredients
200g unsalted butter
200g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
100g plain flour
100g ground almonds
0.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cardamom
1.5 tsp baking powder
50g greek yoghurt
150g blackberries
Handful flaked almonds
Crème fraîche, to serve
Method
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Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Grease a 23cm cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric whisk, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla paste, scraping down the sides in between each addition if you need to. Don’t worry if it curdles, just make sure it’s all mixed together.
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In a separate bowl, combine together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and ground cardamom. With the mixer running on a low speed, add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in two batches, ensuring all the ingredients are well incorporated. Finish by folding through the yoghurt and about half of the blackberries — don’t worry if they break up and bleed through the batter already, you want that to happen!
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Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin and the remaining blackberries — don’t push them in, just lay them gently on top. Scatter over a handful of flaked almonds and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
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Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve in generous slices a dollop of crème fraîche.
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