Crumble cake

Due to my inability to work out how many apples make a crumble, I was forced - yes, forced I tell you - to compromise and invent something.

I suspect it wasn't that much of an invention, but for what it's worth, I share it with the world. 

The deal was this.  Apples sitting in fridge, wind blowing outside, need of hot pudding.  Crumble.  Sorted out the apples, but realised that once I'd finished removing the inedible bits, there really weren't enough to fill the bottom of the dish.  And crumble should be at least half about the fruit.  As I poked at the pan, hoping against hope that adding a little spice and brown sugar would add to the bulk, an image floated across my mind.

A thin layer of sponge into which these apples could go.  A ten minute bake in a medium oven while I rustled up the crumble - it was ready to mix, and there's no going back once you've chopped butter into flour, ground almonds and sugar.  Two eggs of sponge mix later and this plan was sitting in the oven.  Added the crumble to the top of the half baked tray, thrust the whole thing into a blast furnace for another 10 minutes and lo and behold - crumble cake.

It was extremely good.  So good in fact that I repeated it today with blackcurrants.  And that was extremely good too.  So I have another handy dandy way to use up the fruit mountain.