Apple and Toffee Crumble Cake

It's like an apple crumble...but with cake and toffee sauce.

The days are getting shorter and I have a lot more time on my hands as there is less work. This is generally bad, but it also means that i have more time to mill around the kitchen and do some baking! I fancied some cake but didn't want it to have loads of icing or a glaze or anything...then I saw some Granny Smiths just chilling out in the fruit basket. So cake with an apple crumble topping spiked with toffee sauce it was to be. As usual, I've gone for a bake-it-with-your-eyes-closed Victoria sponge base. EASY! Unfortunately I'm not so good at remembering when I have things in the oven and it caught just a bit on the bottom and sides - rubbish! Nothing a little extra toffee won't sort out.

Ingredients:
for the cake:
175g soft butter
175g sugar
3 eggs
175g plain flour
tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract

for the crumble
50g cold butter, diced
55g sugar (white and brown mix if you like)
70g flour (plain and wholemeal mix)

for the toffee
50g butter
50g white sugar
50g brown sugar
60ml single cream

2 medium Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced

Method:
- preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line and grease a 20cm round loose bottomed tin
-make the crumble: place all the ingredients in to a medium sized bowl and rub the butter in to the dry stuff until you get something resembling breadcrumbs - or crumble! Set aside in a cool area.
-Make the sponge: cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add the flour and baking powder, stir to incorporate, then beat to combine. 
- for the toffee sauce, place all the ingredients in to a small sauce pan and set over a medium heat. Once all the sugar has dissolved, turn up high and boil for a few minutes till thickened. Remember to stir!
-Assemble! Pour the cake mix in to the tin and level. Add the apple slices then spoon over 5 tblsp or so of the sauce. Sprinkle some of the crumble on top (you won't need all of it. You can freeze the rest).
-bake for 30 minutes and test with a knife or skewer to make sure it's done.
-Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve with the rest of the toffee sauce.

Toffee! Just a little over done on the bottom there. ooops!

Banana and Toffee Cupcakes

Bannoffi cakes

Banana sponge with toffee buttercream. YUM! To counteract the sweetness of the icing, I made some quite bitter caramel shards to decorate them. The sponge is a classic 3 egg Victoria with a few mashed up super ripe bananas. I would usually fill the cases up a little higher so that there is a better cake-icing ratio (I can't stand it when there is more icing than cake on a cup cake), but I fancied making a couple of chocolate banana mini loaves. I made my own toffee/caramel sauce for the icing in a very slapdash taste-it-and-see way. You could also use an actual recipe or the stuff that comes in a tin. I just had a few left over bits and pieces. This recipe makes 12.

Ingredients:
3 eggs. Weigh them in their shells and then use that weight for the self raising flour, butter and caster sugar.
2 very ripe bananas 
125g very soft butter
300g icing sugar
tsp milk
a few tablespoons of toffee sauce (I used a few tablespoons of sugar, a large knob of butter and a tablespoon of double cream boiled together and cooled)


Method:
- heat the oven to gas 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases
-cream together the butter and sugar
-add in two of the eggs. If it looks a little curdled, add in a little of the flour
-mash the bananas with a fork and mix in the 3rd egg. Add this to the mix and whisk.
- add the flour and mix to a smooth batter. Distribute evenly in the cases and bake for 20 minutes. 

Chocolate banana mini loaves

At this point I had a little batter left over and added 2 big tablespoons of cocoa powder and some chopped up chocolate and made these. Two wee loaves in my under used mini loaf tin.


When cooked, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
To make the icing, beat the butter with half the icing sugar until well incorporated. Add in the rest of the sugar and the milk and beat well. Add the (cooled if just made) caramel and mix in. Decorate!


I made the shards of caramel by cooking some sugar with a dash of water in a frying pan until it turned a dark brown, then quickly tipped it on to some greaseproof paper until cold. I think it would have worked better if I smashed it up in to tiny crystals. NEXT TIME!

oodles of sugar