Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry); macro shot

Bilberry and almond streusel cake

Late summer is a great time to harvest bilberries in Britain – why not pick your own and try this delicious recipe?

Sian Anna Lewis

Published: July 1, 2020 at 8:44 pm

Bilberries look like small blueberries, and they are closely related, but their taste is much more intense and sharp. As someone who finds blueberries just a touch too sweet, for me they are a perfect alternative, but you will need to work hard to find them. Extremely difficult to grow and therefore rarely cultivated, bilberries are a real treat for a forager.

My favourite way to eat them is popped in my mouth one by one during a bracing hill walk - the Brecon Beacons have always provided rich pickings for me - but as long as you have a sturdy container to carry them in, as they squash easily, you can gather a couple of handfuls to take home and use in pies, fools, compotes or even make jam.

The bilberry is similar in appearance to the blueberry. /Credit: Getty

Here is a recipe for one of my favourite cakes, a bilberry and almond streusel sponge. Rich and buttery, the bilberries add fantastic little bursts of sharpness to cut through the sweetness of the cake. If you are not planning a hill walk you could always, as I have many times, substitute the bilberries for redcurrants or blackcurrants with great effect.

Learn how to make bilberry galette and bilberry muffins.

Ingredients

200g Unsalted butter softened to room temperature
200g Caster sugar
4 Eggs
200g Ground almonds
50g Plain flour
1 heaped tsp Baking powder
200g Bilberries or use red or blackcurrants
100g Almonds blanched, and chopped
40g Butter
40g Dark brown sugar

Method

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a square cake tin (approx. X cm) and line with baking parchment.
Step 2
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using a food mixture or electric beaters, or alternatively use a wooden spoon and a bit of elbow grease! Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Fold in the ground almonds, flour and baking powder. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and level a little with a knife.
Step 3
Wash the bilberries and pat gently dry then sprinkle in an even layer over the top of the cake. Bake the cake in the oven for 30 minutes.
Step 4
Whilst the cake is in the oven, make the streusel topping by rubbing together the chopped almonds with the butter and sugar using your thumbs and fingers, just like you are making a crumble. After the 30 minutes is up, remove the cake and sprinkle this mixture evenly over the surface. Slide the cake back into the oven for a further 20-25 minutes or so. It is ready when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean-ish.
Step 5
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. This cake keeps, well wrapped, for several days.

Sian Anna Lewis

Sian Lewis is an award-winning outdoors and travel writer and blogger who focuses on sharing beginner-friendly adventures in the wildest corners of Britain. She runs popular blog thegirloutdoors.com and is also the author of The Girl Outdoors book, published by Bloomsbury in 2018. Sian can mostly be found hiking, camping and wild swimming her way around the world in the name of work, and her UK-based travel writing has taken her sailing the Hebridean Islands on an historic tall ship, swimming with seals off the Isles of Scilly and sleeping suspended from a cliff face in Dorset. Follow with Sian's travels on Instagram at @sianannalewis.