RECIPE: CHERRY CAKE

Oh la la! What a rich and yummy cake. This is definitely a keeper and I believe even without the cherries, as a pure butter cake, it will still be delicious. My only issue is with the aesthetics of the cake; the cherries have the tendency to sink. Oh well, a minor issue - totally overcomed by its taste!


Ingredients

170g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
250g butter
200g caster sugar
5 eggs (see my GLOSSARY post on EGGS)
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g fresh cherries – pitted and sliced (see my GLOSSARY post on CHERRIES)
Extra cherries – halved (to decorate – optional). See Note 1

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line and grease an 18 cm square/round tin.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until very creamy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and beating well after each addition. Lastly add in the vanilla essence and beat for 1 minute.

Add the sliced cherries into the flour mixture. Distribute the cherries evenly thoughout the flour and fold the flour gradually into the butter mixture. In other words, using a spatula or large spoon, gradually mix in the flour mixture.

Bake in the oven for 45 mins to an hour (See Note 2). Cool in the tin for 10 mins. Remove from the tin and further cool the cake on a wire rack.


Note 1

Place the halved cherries on top of the cake after 10 minutes of being in the oven. This SHOULD prevent the cherries from sinking to the bottom. However, do be careful as removing the cake from the oven may cause the cake to slightly ‘drop’ in the middle.

Note 2

This is a very moist cake and has the tendency to be still ‘wobbly’ eventhough it is cooked. If a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the cake (make sure that you do not skewer the cherries as this will give you a false reading) and the cake has ‘left’ the sides of the tin, it is cooked. It will ‘firm’ up after it has cooled.

VG’s Rating: 4 Stars

RECIPE: BANANA STEAMED CAKE (APAM PISANG)

Bananas are one of my favourite fruits and not only are they delicious and nutritious (see my GLOSSARY post on BANANAS), they are great eaten fresh as a fruit, made into a smoothie or cooked in cakes or batter. Here’s a delicious and simple recipe for BANANA STEAMED CAKE. Thanks Sis Ummi for the recipe.

Ingredients

5 lady fingers bananas (see my GLOSSARY post on BANANAS)
8 tbsp sugar
1 egg - beaten
¾ tsp bicarb of soda
4 tbsp thick coconut milk
1 ¼ cups plain flour – sifted


Method

Oil an 8 inch round tray with cooking oil (sunflower oil works well). Assemble your steamer and start the water boiling. Line the lid of the steamer with a large tea towel to capture any condensation. This will ensure that no water falls onto your cake and ruin the top.

Mash the bananas well with the sugar. Using a whisk to blend, add in the egg, bicarb of soda and coconut milk.

Using 1 tbsp additions at a time, add in the flour, while mixing well with the whisk.

Pour into the prepared tin and steam for 30 to 40 mins. Do not open the lid until the 30 min mark is up.

Allow to cool in tin. Cut into wedges and serve as is or with freshly grated coconut.

VG's Rating: 4 Stars

RECIPE: RASPBERRY AND COCONUT MUFFINS

A scrumptious combination – raspberry and coconut. Check it out for yourselves!


Ingredients

375g self raising flour
90g butter – chopped
220g caster sugar
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 egg – lightly beaten
30g desiccated coconut
150g fresh or frozen raspberries
2 to 3 tbsp shredded coconut

Method

Preheat oven to moderately hot. Grease a 12 hole (80ml or 1/3 cup capacity) muffin pan.

Place flour in a large mixing bowl and using your fingertips, rub in the butter. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs.

Next, mix in the sugar, buttermilk, egg, desiccated coconut and raspberries. I used a knife to do this. Do not over mix.

Spoon into prepared muffin pan and top with the shredded coconut. Bake for 20 to 25 mins.

When done, stand in pan for 5 mins before turning onto wire rack. Serve warm or cool.

RECIPE: STRAWBERRY BABY CUPCAKES

A simple cupcake recipe ideal for afternoon tea, kids' birthday parties or for school parties. Top with some strawberry butter icing to complete the effect.


Ingredients

225 g margarine or butter (I used butter) – softened not melted
225 g caster sugar
4 eggs – I used xl (800 g) eggs
225 g self raising flour – sifted
1 tsp Queen brand strawberry essence

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a biscuit tray or slice tin with mini cupcake paper cases.

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters until combined. Evenly spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 15 to 20 mins.

Cool completely before icing with STRAWBERRY BUTTER ICING.

Note: Queen is Australia's leading producer of extracts, essences, food colourings, decorations and syrups and have been doing so since 1897. Queen is available at all major supermarkets. Check out their range of products HERE.

RECIPE: SULTANA SCONES

I have been sitting on this recipe for quite sometime and only remembered when I saw that Mr G had made a batch for the kids. It’s easy to make and great for times when improtu guest arrive around afternoon tea time; as most of the ingredients would be readily available in most pantries.


Ingredients

2 cups SR Flour
1 heaped cup of sultanas
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 cup CREAM or substitute with 1 cup milk (see my GLOSSARY post on CREAM)
Extra milk for glazing

Method

Preheat oven to 210°c.

Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Add sugar and distribute well in the flour.

Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Now add in the sultanas and mix in with a palette knife Add in cream to form a soft dough, using the knife. You don’t want to over work the dough.

Knead lightly on a floured surface and form into a square 3 cm thick. Cut into 16 equal squares and placed on floured or baking paper lined (ungreased) baking tray.

Brush tops of scones with some milk and bake for 12 to 15 mins (you may want to check them at the 10 min mark because of oven differences).

Serve hot with butter and a delicious cup of hot tea.

TIP: It’s always handy to have some long life cream stored in the pantry. During summer, I suggest you store it in the fridge.

RECIPE: RAINBOW LAYERED STEAMED CAKE (KUIH LAPIS PELANGI)

To be honest, I have never made KUIH LAPIS before as I thought it would be too hard and time consuming. Imagine my amazement when I found that it is actually quite easy to make providing you follow some really easy steps. It took me 5 mins for every layer (there were eight layers in total) with an extra 15 mins for the last layer. With preparation and cooking time, the cake was ready in 1.25 hours. Not bad, considering it was my first effort.


I have to thank Sis Ummi for this achievement as I saw this layer cake on her blog and it gave me the motivation to make it. Without much ado, here’s my RAINBOW LAYERED STEAMED CAKE.

Ingredients

2 cups thick coconut milk (I used tinned coconut milk) (see my GLOSSARY post on COCONUT MILK)
1 cup plain flour
½ to 2/3 cups sugar
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp custard flour
½ tsp salt
Green, yellow, red and blue food colourings
7 inch (or smaller) cake tin


Method

Sift the plain flour and rice flour separately. Set aside.

Get your steamer and cake tin ready. Do not oil your cake tin.

In a large bowl, and using a whisk, whisk together the sugar and coconut milk. Heat it in the microwave for 20 secs….don’t even try to cook it for longer as it will curdle the milk. We just want the milk to be tepid. Add in the salt.

Now, using 1 tbsp additions at a time (and still using the whisk), start blending the flours into the coconut milk, starting with the rice flour, custard flour and ending with the plain flour. You have to make small additions of flour at a time as you don’t want your batter to be lumpy. FYI, I did not use the last two tbsp of plain flour as the batter looked quite thick. The consistency of the batter should be similar to that of a thick pancake mix.

Now divide the batter into four bowls and and add ½ to 1 tsp of colouring. Now put a layer of the colour into your tin. I found that with this measurement, you can get 8 layers so use half of your colouring per layer. Steam for 5 mins and repeat the process using different colours for each layer until all the batter is used.

For the last layer, steam an extra 15 to 20 mins. Remove from the steamer and place the cake tin on a wire rack. Leave in the tin to cool completely (around an hour). Cut into desired shapes and serve with a cuppa for afternoon tea or as a sweet snack for the morning munchy attack!!!

RECIPE: BUTTER SULTANA CAKE

A classic tea cake and a tasty variation to the plain butter cake. Lovely served warm with butter ….. or why not try my WHIPPED BUTTER as a sweet alternative???


Ingredients

Melted butter - to grease
250g butter - softened
215g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
450g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
125ml (1/2 cup) milk
385g sultanas
Butter - to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a 9 x 19 cm (base measurement) loaf pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base and two opposite sides with non-stick baking paper.

Use an electric beater to beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a medium bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until the mixture is combined.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Fold half the flour mixture into the butter mixture and stir in half the milk. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and milk until well combined. Use a metal spoon to fold in sultanas.

Spoon cake mixture into prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven. Set aside in the pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. Cut into slices and serve warm or at room temperature with normal butter or my WHIPPED BUTTER, if desired.


Source: Good Taste Magazine - April 2004

RECIPE: PANDAN STEAMED CAKE (APAM PANDAN)

It’s as if I am a ‘ketagih’ (Malay word for addict) of steamed cakes now. I think the reason is because it is so fluffy, easy to make and healthier than normal cakes as it uses only a bit of cooking oil, as opposed to butter or margarine.

Ingredients

4 xl eggs – at room temperature
120g castor sugar (you can lessen this to 100g if desired)
2 tsp ovalette (cake emulsifier) (see my GLOSSARY post on OVALETT)
100 soft flour (I used Anchor brand cake and biscuits flour)
2 tsp baking powder
40 ml fresh milk
40 ml cooking oil (I used Sunflower oil)
1.5 tsp pandan paste or 1 tsp green colouring and 1 tsp pandan essence (see my GLOSSARY post on PANDAN)
8 inch round tin and steamer


Method

Lightly grease your tin with cooking oil and assemble your steamer. Cover the lid with a thin cloth.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and set aside.

Beat the sugar, eggs and ovalette until very thick and fluffy. Add in the essence, beat for a minute and then add in the flour mix.

Continue beating until well blended. Turn off your cake mixer. At this stage get your steamer boiling.

Using a spoon, blend in the milk and oil. Mix well. Pour into your prepared tin.

Steam the cake for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not open the lid of the steamer except at the last 2 to 3 mins of steaming, whilst carefully avoiding any water from the lid falling onto the cake. In other words, do not tilt the lid when you remove it from the steamer until it is well away from the cake.

Cool in the tin for ten minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Serve with some freshly grated coconut (optional).

NOTE: Check out also my post on GADGET AND UTENSILS: COCONUT SCRAPER/GRATER on how to obtain freshly grated coconut.

RECIPE: PISTACHIO FUDGE (PISTA BARFI)

BARFI or Indian Fudge is a popular Indian sweet and is served during festive seasons such as Diwali or to ‘sweeten’ the mouth on happy events such as marriages, engagements, births or for any auspicious or joyous occasions. There are many different flavourings and pistachio is one of the nicer and more expensive versions.

It is not hard to make BARFI but mind you, you need lots of arm muscles as you have to constantly stir the mixture. Don’t attempt to make this if you can’t give it your full attention. You can get around 18 large or 36 small squares with this measurement.


Ingredients

2 litres fresh full cream milk – the creamier the better
1¼ cups sugar
1 tbsp ghee or unsalted butter
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 cup raw blanced pistachio – ground fine
1 cup raw blanched pistachio nuts - chopped fine
1 cup slived almonds

Method

Combine milk, sugar, ghee and cardamom in a pot, preferably non-stick. Bring the milk to a rolling boil over moderate heat and continue to cook it, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon for about 45 minutes, or until the milk has reduced to a thick bubbling creamy mass, about half its original volume. Add the powdered pistachios.

Continue to reduce the fudge, stirring continuously with gently rhythmic strokes for a further 10 minutes, or until the mixture resembles a thick paste.

Reduce the heat to medium low, and cook the fudge, stirring and scraping with the wooden spoon for further 20 minutes or until the mixture becomes a thick dry lump. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool for one minute.

Transfer the fudge to a shallow, buttered tray. Press down the fudge using a banana leaf or aluminium foil until smooth. Evenly spread the chopped pistachios and the slivered almonds. Allow the fudge to cool for an hour.

Cut the fudge into pieces with a sharp, buttered knife. You may need to wipe the knife clean after each cut. Serve with a cup of “garam garam masala chai” ….. hot, hot spiced tea. Too good!!!




Note: Normally a layer of edible silver foil is transferred onto the BARFI. I personally dislike it as it reacts with my sensitive teeth.

RECIPE: RAISIN MUFFINS

Serve these spicy raisin muffins warm with lightly sweetened WHIPPED BUTTER as an alternative to plain butter. It is so much nicer (and richer, of course). You may also use sultanas or dates as a substitute for the raisins.


Ingredients – makes 12 medium or 6 Texan Muffins

150g self raising flour
155g wholemeal self raising flour
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp mixed spice
115g soft brown sugar
260g raisins/sultanas/dates
2 eggs (I used XL eggs)
185ml milk – I warmed this for 30 secs in the microwave
125g unsalted butter – melted in the microwave and cooled
Icing sugar to dust
WHIPPED BUTTER to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 210°C and brush muffin tin with melted butter.

Sift both flours and spices into a large bowl, returning any husk from the wholemeal flour back into the bowl. Stir in the sugar and raisins/sultanas/dates and make a well in the centre of the bowl.

Whisk the eggs and milk together and pour into the well, followed by the cooled butter. Using a metal spoon, stir until just combined. Do not over mix – the mixture should be lumpy.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin, filling each hole about ¾ full. Bake for 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the muffins. Leave in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before lifting onto a wire rack to cool further.

Dust with icing sugar before serving (whilst still warm) and serve with WHIPPED BUTTER and tea/coffee.

RECIPE: AMBON STYLE STEAMED CAKE (APAM AMBON)

Another recipe from SIS UMMI’S blog. So easy to make and the results will be perfect if you follow the easy steps. I unfortunately dropped some water from the lid onto the cake, which depressed the middle slightly (not that you can actually see it). Excellent for afternoon tea with an Asian twist!


Ingredients

4 xl eggs – at room temperature
100 g castor sugar
2 tsp ovalette (cake emulsifier) – you can get this from Asian grocers in Sydney or Melbourne. Unfortunately I have never seen it in Canberra. I have to thank Shafidah Shamen for posting this to me from Sydney…thank you dear) (see my GLOSSARY post on OVALETT)
100 soft flour (I used Anchor brand cake and biscuits flour)
2 tsp baking powder
40 ml fresh milk
40 ml cooking oil (I used extra virgin oil)
2 tsp rose essence (see my GLOSSARY post on ROSE WATER and ESSENCE)
Red food colouring
8 inch round tin and steamer

Method


Lightly grease your tin with cooking oil and assemble your steamer. Cover the lid with a thin cloth.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and set aside.

Beat the sugar, eggs and ovalette until very thick and fluffy. Add in the essence, beat for a minute and then add in the flour mix. Continue beating until well blended. Turn off your cake mixer. At this stage get your steamer boiling.

Using a spoon, blend in the milk and oil. Mix well.

Separate the mixture into two portion, but one portion slightly more than the other (eg 2/3 and 1/3) and add the red colouring to the lesser portion. Now pour a layer of the plain mixture into the prepared tin, then dollop some of the red portion onto the plain portion. Using your finger or a skewer, make zigzags with the red portion to get a marbled effect. Continue this step until all the mixture is used.

Steam the cake for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not open the lid of the steamer except at the last 2 to 3 mins of steaming, whilst carefully avoiding any water from the lid falling onto the cake. In other words, do not tilt the lid when you remove it from the steamer until it is well away from the cake.

Cool in the tin for ten minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Serve warm or cool with tea or coffee.

RECIPE: PERFECT MADEIRA CAKE

This recipe for MADEIRA CAKE works every time I make it and it is so easy too. I usually make MADEIRA CAKE for birthday cakes as it is easy to work with (it is firm, as oppose to sponge cakes) when using BUTTER or royal icing. I made this cake for my son’s birthday recently.


Ingredients – for 18 cm square tin or 20 cm round tin

350 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
250g softened margarine (I used softened butter)
250g caster sugar
4 xl eggs – beaten
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice


Method

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease the tin and line the tin with double thickness of greaseproof/baking paper. Grease the paper and set the tin aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add in the sugar; mix well with a wooden spoon.

Now add in the margarine/butter, eggs and lemon juice. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Now beat the mixture, either using the wooden spoon, vigorously for two mins or one minute using electric beaters on medium speed.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours. To test if baked, press lightly in the middle. If the cake springs back, it is baked. Or alternatively, test by inserting skewer in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.


Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins and then turn onto a wire rack. Remove the lining paper and leave to cool. Iced with royal icing or butter icing, such as my BUTTER ICING.

RECIPE: SPECULAAS (SPICED SHORTBREAD)

My eldest daughter made these shortbread (yes, she can cook and bake when she chooses to, which is not very often!!!) and they are really yummy and quite easy to make.

Mummy has been quite sick for the last few days (I am just very run down and have been prone to every bug that has been ‘travelling’ in the office and what the kids have brought home from school) and so, the kids have had to fend for themselves this past week or so. Anyway, didn’t Miss KG do a good job???

FYI: SPECULAAS is a type of shortcrust biscuit (cookie), traditionally baked for consumption on St Nicholas' Day Eve in Belgium (December 6) and the Netherlands (December 5). In the US and Australia, SPECULAAS are often sold as Dutch Windmill cookies.

Ingredients

2/3 cup flour
¼ tsp bi-carbonate of soda
2 tsp SPECULAAS spice (see SPECULAAS spice mix recipe below)
1/3 cup brown sugar
80 gm butter
3 tsp milk
Blanched almond slices

SPECULAAS Spice mix: Mix together the following ground/powdered spices

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cloves
¼ tsp aniseed


Method

Sift flour, bi-carbonate of soda and spices into a bowl. Mix in the brown sugar.

Rub in butter and gradually add in the milk and knead the dough lightly.

Either press into a lightly greased baking tray or roll out into biscuits. It should be about ¼ to ½ cm thick only.

Decorate with the almond slices and bake in moderate oven (180° C) for approximately 12 to 15 mins. If you have pressed the dough into a baking tin, immediately cut into squares and allow to cool. If you have rolled them out into biscuits, lift onto wire rack. Serve with coffee or tea.

RECIPE: CREAM HORNS

A classic afternoon tea snack that is so easy to make from scratch and is even easier and quicker using store bought pastry.

You can practically use whatever jams you like, however, strawberry and raspberry jam seems to be the norm. My kids like eating this filled with Nutella™ (hazelnut chocolate spread) and also, you can drizzle this on top of the cream horns to give it a nice effect. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:


Sheets of puff pastry or flaky pastry (I used store bought puff pastry)
1 egg white – beaten
Butter – for greasing
4 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jams
125 ml whipped cream (see my glossary post on CREAM)
Icing sugar – for dusting
Strawberries or raspberries for decoration - optional
Cream horn moulds

Method

Cut pastry into 2.5 cm wide strips. Brush lightly with egg white. Lightly grease cream horn moulds if using normal moulds. There is no need to grease the moulds if you are using non stick moulds.


With the damp side of the pastry facing the mould, turn strips around the greased mould, starting from the pointy tip of the mould. Make sure that the strips overlap when you twist this around to the top. Gently squeeze the tip of the pastry to seal in the bottom – You don’t want jam to run out of the bottom when you fill it.

Brush the outside now with egg white and place on a greased baking tray.

Bake in a preheated 220°C oven for 8 to 10 mins. Allow to cool on racks.

Place 1 tsp jam inside the cream horn and fill with the beaten cream. Dust with icing sugar and top with strawberries or raspberries if desired.

NB: I’d recommend you have at least one dozen of cream horn moulds on hand. It will make your preparation and cooking time so much quicker. In addition, try to buy the non stick moulds. It is really hard and slippery to wind the pastry around a greased mould (it was bad enough using the non stick variety!).

RECIPE: BOILED FRUIT CAKE - AGAIN

Without fail, I make this cake for Christmas and Diwali….in fact, Mr G and I baked these for our wedding too. It’s a fool proof fruit cake and so easy to make . To those of you who haven’t seen the recipe, I’ve put it up again and FYI, you can click HERE to go to the original post. So here’s my BOILED FRUIT CAKE – AGAIN.


PS: I also made this to give as Christmas presents.

Ingredients


375g packet of mixed fruit*
250g butter*
2 cups sugar*
2 cups water*
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
4 cups flour - sieved
4 large eggs – lightly beaten with a fork
2 tbsp 'mixed spice' (don’t use 'all spice') - click on the link for my post on MIXED SPICE

Method

Put all the * ingredients in a large pot and gently bring to a boil. Mix well and turn off the heat.

Add in baking powder and baking soda. Be careful at this stage as the soda has the tendency to rise very quickly. It looks as if a volcano is erupting! That is why you have to place the ingredients in a large pot to compensate for the soda rising.

Leave mixture overnight (on the kitchen bench and covered) to brew.

Next day, heat oven to 180°c (160°c fan forced oven) and line a large square tin with baking paper. Grease the paper lightly with some butter.

Add flour, eggs and mixed spice to the cooked ingredients. You don’t have to use a mixer, just a wooden spoon. Mix thoroughly.


Bake in oven for around 1 hour and 15 mins (you have to start checking the cake at the 1 hour mark). Around the 40 min mark, put a tin foil on top of the cake to prevent the top from burning and to ensure an evenly cooked cake. Serve warm with custard or by itself with a good cup of coffee or tea.

RECIPE: CELEBRATION RASPBERRY BUTTER CAKE

This is one of the cakes I made for Christmas this year. I found this recipe in the Australian December 2008 edition of Better Homes and Garden. What a delightful cake! Another one of those cakes that turn out better after a day’s ‘resting’. So no matter what you do, don’t let temptation get you. Leave the cake to rest, in an airtight container for a day before cutting it. Of course, make sure that the cake is completely cool before you store it, or else it will ‘sweat’. Serve it as is or warm with butter. Would be lovely too, served with some coulis (click to see my recipe on STRAWBERRY COULIS – just change the strawberries to raspberries).


Take note that it is a very ‘heavy’ cake (as it does not have baking powder in it) but it does rise considerably. Make sure you use a 6 to 8 cup capacity tin to bake this cake. A fancy tin would look lovely.

Ingredients

Liberal amounts of melted butter for greasing your tin. No need to flour the tin.
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup of cold water – I used the cold water setting on my tap (Note, we get very cold water in our taps in Canberra, even during summer. No such thing as a cold shower here – you’d freeze to death!)
4 cups plain flour – make sure you tap the cup just once to ‘settle’ the flour and hence to give you the correct amounts. Any more taps and you will have too much flour.
1 tsp cream of tartar
250 g butter – softened (around 20 to 30 sec in the microwave for solid butter – you don’t want it runny, just soft)
1 ½ cups caster sugar (use same principle as the flour – tap once to ‘settle’ the amounts)
4 eggs – bring to room temperature if you have them refrigerated.
300 g frozen raspberries, partially thawed (I brought them out of the freezer when I was ready to start making the cake)
Icing sugar – to dust


Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 6 cup fancy ring cake tin with butter.

Combine the bicarbonate and water in a jug. Set aside. Sift the flour and cream of tartar together in a bowl. Set aside.

Beat sugar and butter in an electric mixer until light and creamy. Note: about 6 mins on setting 5 using a Kenwood mixer. Add in the eggs, one at a time (I gave it 1 minute between each egg I added to the bowl and 2 mins after the last addition).

Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a metal spoon to stir, add in the flour and water mixture. Note: I added half the flour and water, mixed the batter gently (as you would to make muffins) and repeated the process with the second half of the flour and water.

Add in the raspberry, mix well and spoon into the prepared tin. Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Note: it took exactly 1 hour 15 mins for the cake to cook.

Stand the cake, still in its tin, on a wire rack, for 15 mins before turning out to cool on the rack again. Put cake on a plate and dust with icing sugar (use a small sieve filled with icing sugar and gently cover the cake with it) before serving.