December 3rd – Mincemeat Crumble Cake

I have found my camera lead! This means I can show off my mincemeat I made yesterday. Once you have mixed everything together, you add the suet, so your mincemeat looks like this, all gorgeously Christmassy and juicy:

Then, Delia says to heat it in the oven for 3 hours so that the suet all melts and you can no longer see any white strands. However, all I did was cover it with clingfilm and put the whole bowl in the microwave for 5-6 minutes and it was all gone easy peasy! So then all that was left was to pop it into jars (wash them with boiling water beforehand) and you end up with beautiful mincemeat ready to go:

So today, it was December 3rd and a new recipe! I wanted to start using my mincemeat straight away so I made a Mincemeat Crumble Cake. Its got three components/layers but they are all very simple: a thin vanilla sponge to soak up all the mincemeat juices, then a mincemeat and apple mix, then a big crumble topping. I did like this cake but I had a little drama – the oven was not on fan but on oven and top grill, when I put it in. Not realising, I just left it for its 40minutes by which time I took it out and my crumble topping was now complete charcoal! My Mum cut off the burntness and we put the cake back in for five more minutes on its normal setting to cook properly all the way through. When we took it out it perhaps wasn’t as pretty as I had intended but tasted just as good! All rather embarrassing to admit, but my intro bit does say “document by successes and failures” although I would not call this a failure at all but just a bit of an accident!

When we ate it though it had worked just as planned: the strong vanilla sponge was a yummy base, and the mincemeat and added apple were rich, plump and juicy. Then what was left of the crumble topping was nice and did add the extra crunch needed to make it all complete. Definitely worth a try – just make sure your oven is on the right setting :D

The recipe was good, but the method described seemed quite long and round-about and using a lot of plates and bowls. I did the crumble all in the Magimix then emptied it into a bowl and set aside. Then I put all the sponge ingredients in at the same time and whizzed and done! But, below I have printed the original recipe.

Mincemeat Crumble Cake, from Entertaining with Katie Stewart.

Makes a 22.5cm (9 inch) cake

Ingredients:

2 dessert apples

225-350g (8oz-12oz) mincemeat

175g (6oz) self raising flour

pinch of salt

100g (4oz) butter

100g (4oz) caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

2tbsp milk

Crumble Topping:

100g (4oz) self raising flour

75g (3oz) butter

75g (3oz) caster sugar

25g (1oz) flaked almonds

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180’C. Grease a 22.5cm (9inch) spring clip tin.
2. Sift the flour for the crumble topping into a bowl. Add the butter and cut in with two table knives using a scissor like movement until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
3. Add the sugar and flaked almonds and set aside.
4. Peel, quarter and core the apples, then dice finely and mix into the mincemeat.
5. Sift the flour and salt for the cake on to a plate. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until soft and light.
6. Lightly mix the eggs and vanilla essence and add to the creamed mixture, a little at a time, beating well after each addition – add a little of the flour along with the last few additions of egg.
7. Gently fold half the remaining flour into the mixture, then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix until blended.
8. spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and spread level. Fork the apple and mincemeat mixture evenly over the filling and cake. Then spread the crumble topping evenly over the filling and cake.

9. Place in the heated oven and bake for 45-50minutes. Allow to cool in the tin before opening the sides.

P.S. Sorry for the “interesting” and oddly lit photos, but I am making these things at about 7 when it is dark :(