Berry & macadamia coffee cake

Today I’m embarking on a new adventure – having packed up my life in Wellington, I am on route to Auckland to return to life as a student (well an intern to be precise). Luckily my parents live in Rotorua, so I’ve been able to break up the car journey and stay with them for the night. I thought I’d whip up a cake to bring to my friend Jane who I’ll be staying with in Auckland. Being at home I’ve been able take advantage of the pantry ingredients that could soon be unaffordable for a poor student. (Dad did suggest that I might need to start a new blog called ‘poverty days’.)

This recipe comes from The Best of Annabel Langbein. I decided on this blueberry & Macadamia coffee cake as Annabel says it keeps well for a few days. As we had raspberries and boysenberries in the fridge that needed using, I added these to the recipe along with blueberries. The cake almost has 3 separate layers, with the base, berries and crumble topping – I’d be interested to see how it goes if the berries are mixed into the base a bit more. I probably slightly overcooked the cake, so will serve it with yoghurt to add some extra moisture, and extra berries too (next time I make this I’ll be more liberal with the berries). The macadamias add a nice crunch to the crumble topping – I love nuts in crumbles!

Blueberry & Macadamia Coffee Cake from The Best of Annabel Langbein

Topping
2/3 cup plain flour
½ cup tightly packed brown sugar
125g cold butter, chopped
½-1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
Cake
125g butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ¾ cups self-raising flour
½ cup milk
1 punnet blueberries or blackcurrants

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease a 23cm cake tin. For the topping – mix flour and brown sugar and rub in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix in nuts. Put to one side. For the cake – beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in flour and milk and combine evenly. Spread into prepared cake tin and sprinkle over berries and then topping. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Stand 15 minutes before turning out of the tin. Allow to cool before cutting.