Julia Busuttil Nishimura's Blackberry And Apple Cake

While summer has now officially left us (a little sad, I know), some of the late summer produce still hangs around for us to enjoy. But now I look to autumn for inspiration. The market is suddenly brimming with new season figs, pumpkins and apples. I really do love this time of year when the seasons cross over.

I was so excited to see all of the new season apples emerge at the market over the last few weeks. One stand had at least 7 varieties, some usually very difficult to find and all wonderfully imperfect and still with their leaves attached, they looked beautiful. I bought far too many, but I couldn’t resist and thought I would make a beautifully simple apple and blackberry cake to share with you. I adore this combination, and the dark purple fruit turns a more vibrant purple in the cake. I usually cook with granny smith apples as I love their tart flavour, but here I’ve used two different varieties – granny smiths and also a lovely pink lady. Use any variety you like, but a mix of a tart and sweeter apple is a great combination.

The warm cake is brushed with melted butter and topped with cinnamon sugar – it smells unbelievable and will be hard to resist eating it warm, which is actually more than fine. I can still remember the apple cinnamon cakes my mum used to make when I was younger. She called it a tea cake, and we would have pieces of it still-warm from the oven. Heavily spiked with cinnamon, they were always delicious and so comforting. My version not only has blackberries rippled through it, but also a good dose of sour cream which gives the cake a very tender crumb. I make this cake in a stand mixer as the butter and sugar do benefit from a good beating, however, it can easily be made simply with a bowl and a wooden spoon.