berries and cream cake

berries and cream cake

• 19 Jun 2022

Last week I saw a photo of a very pretty berry laden cake on Instagram. The cake was an almond butter cake loaded with blackberries and raspberries, topped with cream and more berries. I tracked down the recipe for the cake on the Sainsbury's Magazine website and I decided to make my own version. 

I used my butter cake recipe which uses almond meal in the batter; studded the batter with mixed berries then topped the cake with whipped cream and a berry sauce inspired by the Sainsbury's recipe.

It's winter here in Sydney when berries are usually plentiful but not so this year. Berries are really expensive so I used frozen berries in the cake then spent a small fortune on a punnet of raspberries for decoration.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

 

Berries and cream cake inspired by a recipe from the Sainsbury's Magazine - makes a 17cm cake

Ingredients
150g fresh or frozen mixed berries

114g (4 oz) soft unsalted butter, plus extra to grease 

135g (scant 2/3 cup) caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp grated lemon rind

2 eggs at room temperature

115g (¾ cup) self-raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

25g (¼ cup) almond meal

1/4 cup milk

 

Berry sauce

75g fresh or frozen mixed berries

1 tbsp icing sugar

30 mls lemon juice

2 tsp water

 

To serve

150ml cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

Few berries to serve, optional

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease the base and sides of a 17 cm cake tin, then line the base with baking paper.

Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon rind until very pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until well combined. Sift the flour, baking powder salt into a small bowl, and then stir through the almond meal. Mix the dry ingredients into the batter alternating with the milk until well combined. 

Spread half of the cake mixture into the lined tin, scatter over half of the frozen berries and top with the rest of the cake mixture, roughly levelling the top. Scatter over the rest of the frozen berries, pressing them in slightly. 

Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes before unmoulding then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Berry sauce 

Put the reserved berries in a pan with the icing sugar, lemon juice and water. Cook gently for 5 -10 minutes until the berries have broken down. Blend to a purée, then sieve into a bowl and cool. Check the sauce for sweetness and add extra sugar if the sauce is very tart. 

 

 

 

To serve

Whip the cream and icing sugar until it holds its shape. Fold some of the berry sauce gently through the cream to create a ripple effect and then pile onto the centre of the cake. Drizzle with more sauce and top with a few extra berries if desired. Any extra sauce can be served on the side.

 

 

 

Berries and cream. What's not to love?

 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian