Blueberry and Cumquat Cake with Sugared Pecans

The basis of this cake is a recipe from Annabel Langbein in the July 2013 delicious. magazine – Blackberry and Orange Teacake. I had some cumquat marmalade left over from a bottling session earlier in the week, plus some frozen blueberries on hand, so I used these to add my stamp to the cake. The recipe called for chopped almonds – I’m a big fan of pecans, so I used these instead in the topping.

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125 gms softened butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
2-3 tbls cumquat marmalade (or substitute any citrus marmalade)
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp bicarabonate of soda
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
To serve: a handful of blueberries, a sprinkling of caster sugar (optional) and thick cream.

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Preheat oven to 160 degrees C or 150 degrees C fan-forced. Grease a 20cm spring form tin and line base with baking paper.

Cream butter, caster sugar, vanilla paste and eggs in a food processor until thick and pale. Beat in sour cream and cumquat marmalade, reserving a good teaspoonful, then add alternately SR flour and milk in 3 batches. Combine the bicarbonate of soda, remaining marmalade and 1 tsp water in a small bowl, then pulse into the cake mixture.

Spoon into the cake tin using a spatula, then scatter the blueberries (reserving a handful),  and chopped pecans over the batter. Lastly sprinkle over the brown sugar, making sure the nuts are well covered. The nuts will caramelise nicely during baking.

Bake for 45 minutes, then gently open oven door and scatter remaining blueberries and caster sugar over cake. This is to ensure that some of the blueberries sit on top of the cake  – some will have sunk into the mixture during the initial cooking.

Close oven door and cook for a further 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the tin before unmoulding.

Serve with more berries, a sprinkling of sugar if desired, and lots of thick cream!