Raspberry and vanilla sponge

I was home in the Borders at the weekend, where our soft fruit is growing like crazy. I miss the glut of raspberries and blackcurrants that a good few bushes can produce - there are so many things you can make. Hopefully, I'll get another chance to go back and make blackcurrant ice-cream, which is beautiful with its tart and sweet edges.

Wee Lorenzo had picked a huge bowl of raspberries that we going squishy in the fridge, so I cooked them down to form a jus and made it into a cake!


The cake recipe itself follows my inherited cake recipe, from the mum's grandma to me. It's so versatile because you are free to add ingredients as you please, so long as you pay attention to the liquid/dry ratio. This cake recipe is part of me, and I swear I could make it in under ten minutes. It's all about getting the consistency right....

150g/6oz caster sugar
150g/6oz butter, softened
3 large eggs, whisked
150g/6oz SR flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
1 tblsp milk
1/2 tsp quality vanilla extract
Raspberries
A sprinkle brown sugar

Preheat the oven to gas mark5/180C/375F
Line and flour a round, springform tin.
1, Wash the raspberries in cool water, and look out for any creepy crawlies! It's easiest to do this in a large colander so you can move them around gently.
2, Transfer the raspberries to a large pan and sprinkle a little brown sugar over them. Heat over a gentle flame whilst stirring occasionally. Take the pan off the heat when they end up looking like a runny jam.
3, Whilst the raspberries are cooling, make up your cake mixture.
4, Cream the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until the mix is light and fluffy.
5, Mix together the flour, bicarbonate and salt.
6, Mix together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.
7, Add a third of the wet and a third of the dry ingredients to the creamed sugar, and fold. When this is mixed in, add the next third, then the next.
8, When you are happy with the consistency of the cake mixture, you are ready to mix in the raspberry marble!
9, Sieve the raspberries over a bowl to catch the juices, and either discard or keep the seeds and flesh - I fed them to Lawrence, but they would just as nicely go on a bowl of yoghurt or cereal if you don't mind the seeds.
10, Gently pour the raspberry juice into the cake mixture, and fold. The aim is not to mix this through, but to create  two colours in the cake. If you get carried away and end up with a pink cake, all is not lost - it will still taste delicious - and you will have learnt how not to marble, ready for another attempt!