Blueberry Crumble Loaf

What’s better than a crumble? The answer is of course, a crumble cake! This lovely loaf cake gives you the comfort of a lovely dessert in a tasty teatime treat.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes – 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield Quantity: 1 loaf cake
Special Equipment: loaf tin and hand or stand mixer.
Ingredients:
Loaf:
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g golden caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
Zest of 1 orange
3 medium eggs
60g whole milk
50g fresh blueberries (plus a handful for decoration)
Crumble Topping:
50g demerara sugar
50g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
Handful of toasted flaked almonds for decoration
Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 175C, line a small loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
Cream together the butter and sugar until pale.
Beat the eggs into a small bowl and gradually add to the creamed mixture, whisking vigorously until combined.
Slowly add the milk to the mixture, whisking to incorporate.
Add in the orange zest and sieve over the flour, then fold in gently until just combined.
Fold in the blueberries and pop your mixture into your tin.
Prepare your crunchy crumble topping!
Place the butter and flour into a large bowl, begin to combine by using your hands to ‘breadcrumb’ the mixture, rubbing the flour and butter between your thumb, index and middle finger.
Once this reaches a breadcrumb texture, keep on going until the mixture starts to clump together slightly into larger pieces.
Stir in the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture over your batter.
Place your tin on the middle shelf of your oven for 40 minutes – up to 1 hour, until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
When cool, decorate with blueberries and some flaked almonds – then enjoy!
Tips:
It is ideal to use a 1lb loaf tin for this bake, however this would also work as cupcakes, baked for 15-20 minutes or one 6 inch cake.
You can mix up the fruit with this - why not caramelize some apples, pears or add seasonal spices to your loaf cake.