feijoa cake with crumble topping

I love the thought of this: cake and crumble. This recipe comes from Taste magazine, May 2009.

FEIJOA CAKE WITH CRUMBLE TOPPING

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 75g butter
• 2 lemons (zest and juice)
• 1 ripe banana
• 4 large feijoas (½ cup mashed)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
• 4 medium (size 6) free-range eggs, at room temperature
• ¾ cup castor sugar
• icing sugar, for dusting

Crumble topping

• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup light brown sugar, sieved
• ¾ teaspoon mixed spice
• 50g butter, melted
• 50g slivered almonds

Method

1. Line a 23cm cake tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. To make topping, blend flour, sugar and mixed spice in a bowl, squishing any lumps. Pour over melted butter, mix in with a fork, then stir in almonds. Set aside.
3. For cake, melt butter gently, then leave to cool. Grate zest from lemons and set aside. Peel and mash banana. Halve feijoas, scoop out flesh and mash. Mix mashed fruit with 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Sift flour with a pinch of salt and the baking powder.
4. Use an electric beater to whisk eggs in a large bowl until blended, then slowly beat in sugar. Continue beating until light and foamy and the mixture leaves a thick trail off the upheld beaters (this may take up to 5 minutes). Sprinkle lemon zest over.
5. Sift half the dry ingredients over egg mix and fold in lightly with a large spoon. Pour cooled butter arond the sides of the bowl. Fold together gently until just amalgamated. Sieve and fold in the rest of the dry ingredients, then fold in fruit.
6. Pour into tin. Gently scatter over crumble topping, trying not to deflate cake batter. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cake is springy to touch, golden and pulling away from sides of tin. Remove from oven and rest for 15 minutes. Invert onto a plate, cover with a cake rack and turn it right side up again. Leave to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar before serving.