Blueberry & Lemon Crumb Cake
Fruity cakes have always been a favourite for me, even more so than their chocolate counterparts. And a fruity citrusy cake? Well! That’s just the bee’s knees. This Blueberry & Lemon Crumb Cake is sure not to disappoint, with its light and fluffy almond sponge, zesty and tangy lemon, oodles of blueberries and topped with a delightful coconut crumb topping.
It’s oh-so-light and deliciously moist. So here are a few tips for you to help with your baking.
BLUEBERRIES
Fresh blueberries are best as they retain their structural integrity well. However, if they are out of season or not available to you, you can use frozen blueberries. Be sure to keep them frozen while making the cake. If you use them defrosted they will make a mess of the batter and chances are your cake will be undercooked and too wet. Berries tend to burst when frozen and defrosted, so that’s something to keep in mind and avoid when baking. Also, if you can’t get blueberries at all, fresh or frozen, replace with any other semi-sweet berry (boysenberries, blackberries, raspberries etc).
LEMONS
In this recipe we use lemons, and they do need to be fresh, not pre-packaged juice bought in a bottle, and not citric acid blend. The fresh stuff is really important to make the cake sing, and given the ingredients include zest, then it all just makes sense to use fresh lemons. Choose ripe lemons for the best result. Also, this cake would be wonderful if you used limes instead of lemons, so either fruit would work well.
KETO and SUGAR ALTERNATIVES
We use coconut sugar in the crumb and maple syrup in the cake. You could use coconut sugar in the cake too, and the result would be a more caramel flavour with a browner cake color. If you wanted to make it keto, you absolutely could use your preferred sugar replacement such as xylitol or erythritol. You could make the crumb keto by eliminating the sugar entirely and adding more almond meal and coconut to the crumb mix. I wouldn’t recommend using erythritol in the crumb as the cooling effect would be accentuated by the fact that there is no water content in the ingredients. The cooling effect always dissipates when it comes into contact with water, and accentuated when it binds with fats. However, monkfruit or stevia would be fine.
To make it keto though you’d need to reduce the number of berries in the mix to align it to your carb quota! And you’d also need to replace the lemon juice with 1/4 cup oil plus another 1 lemon of zest! 🙂
NEED SOME HELP WITH INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT?
ALMOND MEAL
https://amzn.to/2UM7T02
ERYTHRITOL
VEGETABLE MARGARINE
AUS: Nuttlex is available at all supermarkets and Costco
LEMON SQUEEZER
