Raspberry and Amaretti Crunch Cake

Just take a look at that. You don't even have to see the title of this recipe to know that it's a crunch cake. Those golden shards of amaretti biscuits lend this great texture all through the cake. For those of you that don't know, amaretti biscuits are little, crisp almond flavoured biscuits that originate from Italy. They can be included in desserts like this or munched on their own with a cup of coffee. They are quite sweet, so if you have a sweet-tooth, you'll love them. This cake is a perfect example of a Sophistibakes cake: rich, moist, full of flavour and very easy to make. Everything works in harmony: the raspberries, also scattered through the cake, offer a tart contrast to the sweet amaretti and the ground almonds accentuate the flavour of the biscuits. I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and I am eternally grateful that I did. I suggest making two because after one slice (obviously drizzled with cream) you want another. My stomach is grumbling just writing about it, think I'm going to head to shops to get the ingredients now!

I started off the recipe by prepping my tin. Now I do have a 20cm tin like BBC Good Food calls for, but it is not loose-bottomed. I didn't want to risk this amazing cake getting stuck in the tin, so I used my spring-form 25cm tin. This made the overall cake thinner and wider, but it was a minor sacrifice to make. So my spring-form tin was lined with butter and baking parchment and the oven was pre-heated to 140C.

Good Food's method instructs one to bang all the ingredients, bar the biscuits and raspberries into a bowl and whisk them together. I don't like doing this for recipes I've never done before, so went the traditional way with creaming the golden caster sugar and butter together first.

I creamed them together with an electric hand whisk until they were pale and light in texture.

Out of the 140g of self raising flour, I added in a tablespoon into the batter and whisked that in. 

When the flour was mixed in, I added in an egg along with another tablespoon of flour and whisked that into the batter. I repeated this, mixing in flour, then egg with flour until all 3 eggs were added. I just folded in any remaining flour. 

The last thing to add to cake batter was the 85g of ground almonds. The ground almonds do not just lend their sweet almondy flavour, but act as flour. With cake batters, we usually see equal parts of butter, sugar and flour. But there is just 140g of flour in this recipe, while there is 175g of sugar and butter. This can be done because of the ground almonds. There are recipes out there where ground almonds completely substitute flour, and it's a great gluten-free option in baking. 

With the batter done, I scooped in half the cake batter into the lined tin and smoothed it out with a palette knife. A spatula will do the job right here too. 

Taking half of the amaretti biscuits, I crumbled them over the top of this half of the cake batter. This can easily be done with your hands.

Because the amaretti biscuits looked a but lonely, I invited a third of the raspberries to the party. 

The remaining half of the cake batter was spread over this with the palette knife. It doesn't have to cover every inch of the biscuits and raspberries, don't worry, it will spread as it bakes in the oven. 

And of course, the rest of the plump raspberries and crunchy amaretti biscuits were scattered on top - already looking beautiful before heading into the oven.

This baked in the oven for an hour. I checked if it was ready by inserting a toothpick into the middle and seeing if it came out clean. 

Golden and bejewelled, this cake is sophisticated and very simple to make. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't pass it off as a cake that took you hours and hours to make. The flavours are that intense, the texture so perfect, it's a little white lie you can afford to make, or shall I say, a little golden lie!

Serves 8-10 

Prep Time: 20 minutes 

Baking Time: 1 hour 

Ingredients:

• 175g Butter, softened 
• 175g Golden Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs 
• 140g Self Raising Flour 
• 85g Ground Almonds 
• 140g Amaretti Biscuits, broken
• 250g Raspberries

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Butter and line a 20cm loose-bottomed tin, or any loose-bottomed or springform tin that you have.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the butter and golden caster sugar using an electric hand-whisk or freestanding mixer. Do this until the sugar and butter is pale and light in texture. 
3. Add a tablespoon of the flour and mix this into the batter. Then with the next tablespoon, add one of the eggs and mix this in. Continue this flour, then flour with an egg process until all the eggs have been added. Fold in the remaining flour. Mix in the ground almonds. 
4. Take half of the cake batter and put it into the prepped tin. Smooth out the top with a palette knife or spatula. 
5. Crumble over the batter half the amaretti biscuits, with just your hands, and scatter a third of the raspberries over the biscuits. 
6. Spoon over the remaining cake batter and smooth this out as much as you can towards the edges. Then scatter over the remaining broken amaretti biscuits and raspberries on top.
7. Bake in the oven for an hour. When it is ready, the top should be golden and a skewer or toothpick or knife should come out clean after being inserted into the middle. 
8. Serve warm with cream and enjoy.