A picture of a golden teacake, complete with a textured fruit-flecked topping caught my eye whilst flicking through the latest issue of Delicious magazine. Although the Blackberry and Orange Teacake recipe by New Zealand chef Annabel Langbein on page 128 included almonds, which I cannot eat due to my allergy, I successfully substituted these with the same quantity of rolled oats. I also used frozen raspberries and fresh apple because blackberries are not in season in Australia and I didn’t have any frozen ones on hand. I am therefore calling this bit of baking bliss, Terrifically Tasty Orange, Apple and Raspberry Tea Cake. An excellent afternoon or morning tea cake because it is moist, dense, easy on the eye, flavoursome without being overly sweet with oh-so-fragrant hints of orange zest and vanilla. I should have doubled the recipe because the only evidence of the cake ever existing are a few crumbs left on the serving plate. 

Despite buying this July copy of Delicious more than a week ago, this is the first time I have managed to do more than glimpse at the cover – there is always something or someone else demanding my attention. So with the winter sun shining, I sat outside with my youngest child and together we munched on sandwiches and chatted about the images in this food magazine. A great deal of effort has gone into styling each shot, because the meals look so scrumptiously appealing. I felt like reaching in and plucking the pork sausage off the plate of lentils in the section called, Daily Special, that’s how fab the food looks.  My son wanted to “make everything” and at one point bent his head low over a rich chocolate chilli tart photo and actually sniffed the page. At least he didn’t lick the page…this time!

Terrifically Tasty Orange, Apple and Raspberry Tea Cake to serve 8 people or 5 children ravenous and in need of after school sustenance and a mother requiring a decent slice of cake with a cup of tea.  

Ingredients
125 g unsalted butter at room temperature
165 g caster sugar
1 large egg
120 g sour cream
1 orange – finely grated zest and the juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
260 g self raising flour
125 ml milk
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
230 g raspberries or other berries – if not in season, then use good quality plump frozen berries.
1 large apple, pealed and diced into 1 cm cubes
60 g brown sugar
40 g rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees on a conventional setting. 

Grease and line a 20 cm cake tin. 

Cream together the butter and sugar until it is thick and ivory in colour. This only took me 5 minutes to do using my reliable KitchenAid mixer – see below. I put the butter and sugar into the bowl, turned the dial to ON and then went outside and played catch with my little one. This appliance is an essential in the kitchen of a busy home cook as it makes baking on a regular basis much more manageable. 


Beat in the egg, sour cream, orange zest and juice and vanilla until combined. 

Add the flour milk and bicarb and beat again until smooth. 

In a separate bowl, combine the berries, diced apple and brown sugar which will be the topping for your tea cake. 

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and spoon over the topping making sure it covers the entire surface of the raw batter. 

Place in the oven for 75 minutes. Do not open the door during this time otherwise the cake will not rise. I found the cooking time to be very accurate and when I carefully inserted a skewer into the centre of the cake it came out clean. 

Leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes, which is enough time for hungry children to unpack their school bags, wash their hands and change out of uniforms. 

Serve as is or with warm drizzly custard which I quickly mixed up just before cutting the cake. No, I didn’t make this part from scratch, couldn’t quite manage juggling egg yolks, children and listening to multiple school yard stories at once. Instead, I used Foster’s Custard Powder which I whisked though just boiled milk over a low heat, until it was warm, smooth and slightly thickened.