Blackberry Cake with an Orange Juice Custard and an Almond BrittleTopping

It's the season for berries! While blackberries tend to be rather tart in Germany they are incredibly sweet in California. I never cared for the much in the past because they were too tart, but I love them now!

Ingredients:

Springform (26 cm or 11 inches in diameter)

Some grease

For the custard:

200 ml milk or cream

1 package vanilla pudding powder or cook-and-serve JELL-O for 500 ml milk

50 g sugar

300 ml orange juice, best use freshly squeezed or pasteurized

250 g fresh blackberries

For the batter:

100 g butter or margarine

75 g sugar

1 package of vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

3 eggs

150 g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

50 g almond flour

For the almond brittle topping (Krokant):

50 g slivered almonds, chopped into smaller pieces

50 g sugar

Preparation:

1. Wash blackberries and put on a paper towel to dry off.

2. Prepare custard: Add milk or cream to a stovetop pot, add sugar and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Remove pot from stove and stir pudding mix into orange juice. Return to stove and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Remove custard from stove and let cool down a bit.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). Grease bottom of springform.

4. Using an electric mixer beat butter or margarine until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla sugar and beat until sugar is dissolved and a smooth batter has formed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, about 1/2 minute per egg. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and almond flour. In two portions, add flour mixture to batter and mix well.

5. Add batter to springform and spread evenly. Pour custard on top of batter, put blackberries on top.

6. Prepare topping: Add almond pieces to a pan (no fat) and heat on medium heat on stovetop until they start to turn golden. Add sugar to almonds; the sugar starts to melt, so keep stirring until all almonds are coated with sugar and sugar is starting to caramelize.

7. Bake cake in oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 40 minutes. Remove cake from oven, and let cool in springform for about 10 minutes before removing the springform edge.