James Martin shares his seriously delightful recipe for Peach and Crème Fraiche Crumble Cake with IDEAL.
This is the kind of cake I like to make at home: it’s really simple, but the crumble adds a nice crunchy texture. When peaches aren’t in season, you can use tinned peaches – just drain them well before adding them to the cake batter. Plums and damsons also work well, but avoid fruit with a high water content, such as strawberries and raspberries, or you’ll end up with a soggy cake.
Serves 12–16
For the cake
- 450g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 200g butter, plus extra for greasing
- 350g demerara sugar
- 6 eggs
- 150g crème fraîche
- 25ml peach schnapps or peach juice
- 100ml peach purée
- 7 peaches, halved and stoned, or 2 x 400g tins peach halves, drained
- For the crumble
- 60g plain flour
- 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 30g butter, diced
- 30g demerara sugar
- For the topping
- 100g crème fraîche
- 100g cream cheese
- 50ml double cream
- Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas mark 1 and grease and line a 24cm high-sided, loose- bottomed cake tin.
- To make the cake, place the flour, baking powder and butter in a bowl and rub together to form a breadcrumb-like texture. Stir in the sugar.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, crème fraîche, peach schnapps or juice, and purée together, then pour onto the dry mixture and mix to a thick batter.
- Pour half into the prepared tin and tap the tin gently to settle the batter. Place the peach halves, cut-side up, onto the batter in concentric circles, then top with the remaining batter, smoothing over the top.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 13⁄4 hours until golden and risen. A skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean – if it doesn’t, return the cake to the oven for a further 5 minutes and repeat. Leave the cake in the tin to cool completely.
- While the cake cools, make the crumble to go on top. Turn the oven up to 180°C/350°F/ Gas mark 4. Place the flour, ground cinnamon and butter in a bowl and rub until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Spread out over a baking sheet and bake for 6–8 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Set aside to cool on the baking sheet.
- For the topping, whisk the crème fraîche, cream cheese and double cream together then spread over the cake while it’s still in the tin – this will give you a neat finish. Scatter the crumble over the top to cover the cream then ease the cake out from the tin.
BBC Good Food Show London
