PEACH CRUMBLED CAKE

It's my daddy's birthday! Let me think of a cake to bake for such a wonderful occasion. Erm... I've been thinking of eating an apple crumble, but then my dad does not fancy a pie or tart, so why not take this opportunity to change it into a cake? And instead of the usual apple crumble, I am going to use peach. (Actually I had wanted to use apricot, but could not find fresh or canned, so ended up using canned halved peaches instead.)

I thought about how I would make this cake as I've never baked a crumbled cake before. Was there such a cake? Apparently there was. Should I bake the crumble separately? Thought hard and decided to bake on the cake itself. What was the proportion of fats:sugar:flour for the crumble? I forgot...  But I was not going to take too much risk, looked at other recipes and had a slight idea on the proportion. I decided to make my own sponge and see if the crumble would hold. Thank God it did because I would have no time to bake another cake!

PEACH CRUMBLED CAKE
Ingredients
Crumble Top
57g cold salted butter, cubed
57g demerara sugar
50g plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Some sliced canned peach, drained

Cake Sponge
6 egg yolks
120g canned peach syrup
160g low protein flour
20g corn flour
80g canola oil
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 egg whites
110 caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Sugar syrup
50g water
35g caster sugar
1 tbsp Kirsch or brandy (optional)

Filling
300g cold thickened cream
30g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence 
Sliced canned peaches, drained

Method
1. Make the crumble first. Mix flour, sugar and cinnamon powder in a bowl. Using 2 butter knives or forks, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs. (As I am baking the night before the birthday, I made my crumble slightly coarser. If you are making this on the day of consumption, you may make the crumbs finer)

2. Chill crumble in fridge as the cake sponge is being prepared.

3. Prepare two 11x7 inch baking trays, lined with non stick greasepapers. Preheat oven at 150C.
4. In a clean, dry, greaseless mixing bowl, add in the egg whites. Using clean, dry and greaseless beaters, with medium-slow speed, beat the whites till foamy and add cream of Tartar and 1/3 caster sugar. Add another 1/3 sugar when the whites are more stable, and the last 1/3 sugar when the whites become soft peaks. Beat till stiff.

Stiff white is ready when the peaks are pointed upwards and there is no lumpy whites

5. Set aside.
6. In another mixing bowl, using high speed, beat egg yolks till pale, creamy and thickened. The volume should increase by at least a double.

7. Pour in the canned fruit syrup, oil and vanilla essence. Beat for about 30 seconds.
8. Combine the low protein and corn flours and sift into the egg mixture. Stir gently and using low speed, beat for about 10 seconds to mix well. Do not over beat.

9. Scrape 1/3 of meringue and fold gently into the egg yolk batter. You can use a hand balloon whisk to help fold the batter effectively. 

10. Now pour all the yellow batter into the meringue and gently fold until well combined.

11. Pour batter evenly into the two prepared trays. Smooth the top and tap a few times on the counter top to remove air bubbles. 
12. On one of the trays, place some sliced peaches and scatter the prepared crumble evenly on the top.

13. Bake for about 20-25 minutes with crumble on top level of oven and plain sponge on lower level of oven. After first 15 minutes, change positions of trays. About 5 minutes later, poke a skewer into the middle of plain sponge. If the skewer comes out clean, remove the plain sponge and allow to cool completely.

14. Now, move the crumbled sponge to top level. Bake for another 5 minutes and test doneness with skewer. If the skewer comes out clean, turn up the heat to 180C for 3-5 minutes to give the crumble a nice brown colour.
Allow to cool completely.

15. As the cake sponges are baking in the oven, make sugar syrup. On low heat, place water and sugar into a small pot and stir until sugar dissolves. Add Kirsch (optional) and continue to give a light simmer for a few seconds to allow alcohol to evaporate. Set aside and cool completely.

16. Once the cakes are cooled, it is time to whip the cream. In a clean chilled bowl, pour in thickened cream, sugar and vanilla essence. Using medium-high speed and clean beaters, whip till stiff.

17. Invert the cooled plain sponge, brush with sugar syrup. Lay a layer of cream, followed by peaches, and another layer of cream.

18. Top with the crumbled cake, trim the sides of the cake and there you go.

VERDICT

The sponge is light yet surprisingly it can hold the heavy crumble top. I thought the crumble would sink into the cake. The crumble texture is still with crunch although I chilled the whole cake in the fridge overnight. My husband likes the crumble as it is, as he feels that finer crumbs may not have the same texture as these slightly coarser ones. I like it too. But next time, I will make a prettier crumbled top with blueberries and perhaps some chopped strawberries for better presentation.