I made this cake for tea with my parents and our friends Fergus and Sara Jane. It's full of classic summer flavours, using fresh apricots and lots of home grown tayberries from the fruit cage. Tayberries are a cross between raspberries and loganberries, and if you can't find any near you then raspberries would do just as well. The review from Fergus? "Crunchy topped and sublime with a moist and yielding crumb".
Recipe
My own recipe.
Serves 6-8
for the cake:
3 large eggs, room temperature
200g golden caster sugar
200g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 apricots, cored and chopped small
approx 200g tayberries or raspberries
2 handfuls dessicated coconut
3 handfuls flaked almonds
1.Turn the oven to 170C (150C fan oven). Grease a 20cm round baking tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar together for at least 3 minutes in a large bowl until fluffy.
3. Add the first egg and a tablespoon of the flour, and beat well until smooth. Repeat the process with the other two eggs one after the other, adding a little flour with each and beating until smooth.
4. Throw in the orange blossom water. Stir into the butter mixture, before adding the rest of the flour. Gently mix until combined.
5. Pour half the batter over the base of the cake tin, before placing the apricot and tayberries evenly over the top. Then add the rest of the batter over the top, spread and smooth down with a spatula. Make sure that the fruit is covered by the batter.
6. Sprinkle first the dessicated coconut and then the flaked almonds over the cake, then put in the oven to bake for approx 50 minutes. You'll know it's done when a skewer comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and leave the cake in its tin for 15 minutes before carefully turning it out onto a wire rack or a plate to cool.
8. Once cool, sift some icing sugar over the top and decorate with some more berries and mint leaves if you like.
9. Serve with a cup of tea and maybe some cream if you're that way inclined.
This cake was idly baked to the sound of Exile On Main Street by The Rolling Stones
