A few weeks back we had the first meeting of the Eastleigh Clandestine Cake Club, which was really great fun. Our theme was fabulous fruit cakes and we had a great mix of flavours to try. After a few last minute cancellations, there were five of us and enough cake to feed about 50! Everyone got to take home a large box with huge wedges of left over cake.

We had:

Lyn’s apricot fruit cake

Carrie’s banana loaf cake

Julie’s peach and blueberry upside down cake

Michelle’s Victoria Sponge with berry filling

My apple crumble and custard cake

Everyone enjoyed getting together and having a good natter over delicious cake and we all agreed that we’d like to carry on the club. So our next meeting will be on Wednesday 16th May at 7:30pm with a theme of Jubilant Jubliee – cakes fit for a queen. To find out more details about the event and how to book your place, have a look at our Clandestine Cake Club page.

Lots of people have asked for the recipe for my apple crumble and custard cake, so here it is…

Ingredients

300g unsalted butter or Stork baking margarine

300g golden caster sugar

300g self raising flour

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping

2 apples, diced

75g self raising flour

35g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

35g golden caster sugar or demerara sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

For the filling

100g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar

1 or 2 tbsp custard

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and line two 9 inch round cake tins (you could bake it in one deeper tin for longer and slice in half before filling).

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, either using a food mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon.

3. Lightly beat the eggs and vanilla extract together then mix it in with the butter and sugar, a little at a time. Adding a tbsp from the flour after each addition of egg will stop the mixture from curdling.

4. Fold in the remaining flour and split between the tins.

5. To make the crumble topping, rub the butter into the flour (or use a food processor) until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then stir in the sugar and cinnamon.

6. Sprinkle the diced apple over the top of one of the cakes followed by the crumble mixture.

7. Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes until the cakes are risen and golden, and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre.

8. Leave to cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

9. To make the filling, beat the butter and icing sugar together until they are well combined – I use a food mixer to do this. Then stir in the spoonful of custard. It can be tricky to get the right texture, so add the custard slowly until you get the flavour and texture you like.

10. Spread the bottom cake with the filling and top with the other sponge.