Quince and Blueberry Crumble Cake

Quinces are abundant in the markets at this time of the year and this cake from AWW's "Cakes, Slices and Biscuits" offers up another way to enjoy this fruit. Poached quinces and blueberries are scattered upon a buttery cake base and then covered in a rich cinnamon crumble. This is one cake they'll all be asking for "more please!"



Quince and Blueberry Crumble Cake

185g butter, softened
165g caster sugar
2 eggs
335g self-raising flour, sifted
180ml milk
300g fresh or frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons cornflour

Poached Quinces
750ml water
165g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1kg quinces, peeled, cored and each cut into 8 wedges (keep the pieces in lemon water to stop them from going brown)

Cinnamon Crumble
110g plain flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
110g brown sugar
100g butter, diced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To poach the quinces:

Mix the water, sugar, cinnamon stick and lemon juice in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the quince and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the quince is tender and rosy in colour. Cool to room temperature in the syrup before straining out the quince. Store both the quince and the syrup in separate containers.


Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a deep 23cm square cake pan with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions until just combined. Carefully, stir in the flour and milk in two batches.

Spread the mixture over into the pan, smoothing the top before baking for 25 minutes.

While cake is cooking make the crumble.

In a food processor, add all the crumble ingredients and pulse until combined.

When the cake is cooked remove from the oven. If using frozen blueberries toss them through the cornflour. Top the cake with drained quince then scatter over the blueberries before finally covering it with the cinnamon crumble mixture.

Put this bake in the oven and bake for another 20 minutes. Stand the cake 5 minutes before turning out, top-side up onto a wire rack. You should be able to pull the cake out with the baking papers.



Serve the cake warm or cold with the reserved quince syrup.

Tagged with Cake