We were recently in Germany on a weekend trip to Aachen, and as always we could not resist a stop to our favourite book store. It is truly and enchanting place. Selling everything a person could imagine, indulging passions varying from music to cooking, from travelling to science, and for everyone a beautiful book could be discovered as a cherished piece of one’s soul, available to be embraced and taken home.
On this particular trip, I was casually glancing through one of the book sections when a most spectacular recipe book caught my eye. I have never seen a book like that. Big and shiny, with a boldly written title “Indulgent Cakes” gracing the cover next to a mouth-watering four tier cake. And this was only the start of the magic. Every turning of the page revealed the most amazing cake recipes one could only imagine, presented in a most enticing, elegant way. This was not a book, this was a piece of art, a piece of magic and my soul rejoiced that I could have it.
Sitting in our living room and discussing our plans for my husband’s family birthday celebration, it is no surprise that when it comes to cakes, we have a reference for recipes like none other. I let him turn the pages and choose his heart’s desire. We stop and discuss a few, but the final selection is made for an Almond Raspberry Crumble Cake. Light and soft like a feather lemon sponge meets a fragrant nutty crumble topping, kissed by a layer of sweet and sour raspberry perfection in-between. What a beautiful way to say happy birthday to my dearest one in the language of food and love.
{Original recipe from Indulgent Cakes by the Australian Women’s Weekly}
Ingredients
For the cake
- 125g salted butter (room temperature)
- 275g sugar
- 1tsp of grated lemon peel
- 1 Vanilla sugar (Dr. Oetker)
- 3 eggs
- 1/4tsp soda bicarbonate
- 225g plain flour
- 125ml milk
- 125g Raspberries
- 1tbsp powder sugar
For the crumble
- 150g plain flour
- 60g almond powder
- 75g Demetra sugar
- 75g sugar
- 125g salted butter (cold)
- 20g oatmeal
- 50g Almond flakes
Method
1. For the cake. Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large bawl whisk together with an electric mixer the eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon peel. Once fluffy and smooth add the soda bicarbonate and the flour, and the milk mixing well until all is combined. Lay a backing form with baking paper. Poor the cake mixture on top and gently smooth the service. Put the cake in the oven and let it cook for 20 minutes.
2. For the crumble: In the meantime prepare the crumple by putting in a separate bawl the flour, the oatmeal, the sugar, the almond powder and the butter. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers. When the entire paste starts to resemble bread crumbs add the almond flakes.
3. Once the cake has baked for 20 minutes, take it our of the oven and generously scatter on the top the fresh raspberries. Cover on top with the crumble and return to the oven to bake for additional 30 minutes.
4. Once baked, take out of the oven but keep in the baking form to slightly cool for 10 minutes. Take out the cake of the form and place it onto a cooling wrack to cool completely.
5. Dust with powder sugar before serving.
