Summer Celebration Cake

 If you are celebrating anything during the summer, be it a birthday, anniversary or exam results, this cake ticks all the boxes on look, taste and ease. In my case, it was the wedding anniversary of my parents, but there is nothing stopping you making this in the middle of winter with no special occasion happening. This recipe comes from the BBC Good Food website and is actually the combination of two recipes, so it's best to have the two recipes physically in front of you and annotate on one when you should switch back to the other. The reason I say this is because I had made the cake batter from recipe-one and put it into the oven for a few minutes before realising that I had forgotten to add the berries from recipe-two. Not to fear, I yanked the cake out of the oven and just pushed the berries into the cake batter, and all was fine! Still tasted the same, looked a bit different, but that was to be covered by the crème fraîche. Crème fraîche is French for 'fresh cream' and is similar to sour cream in the sense that it has that tangy taste, but it is made with a special mix of bacteria that gives it its own unique taste. It goes well with cakes like this because it cuts through sweet and even sour flavours. It's what makes this cake light, and paired with the moist sponge, it's a celebration in your mouth with Kool and the Gang playing. 

My first job was to prep a 23cm springform tin with butter and greaseproof paper. If you have a loose bottomed tin, you can use this too. It's a thick batter so it shouldn't leak.

 Then in a large bowl, I creamed the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and salt (only 1/4 of a teaspoon). 

I did this until everything was light in colour and texture. 

Then it was time to add the eggs. There are five of them in total, but they are added in one at time. You add one, mix it in thoroughly and then add in the next. 

After adding in all the eggs, the batter may look slimy, because it's a lot of liquid, and the eggs may not have come to room temperature yet. To solve this, just add a tablespoon of the plain flour and it will absorb some sliminess before you add in the Greek yogurt. This recipe calls for 85g of plain flour and 250g of self raising flour, so make sure you take that tablespoon from your 85g reserve, don't add extra. So I did this and then added the Greek yogurt. 

When that was done, the rest of the flours were folded in. 

The last thing to go into the batter was milk. You can tell by the amount of eggs, the Greek yogurt and milk that this is going to be a moist cake. 

Now this is where I got too excited and just spooned the whole batter into the tin. 

What I was meant to do was spoon in half the batter, then tumble in half the berries and cover this with the remaining batter. But seeing as the cake still baked properly, you are free to do this, or my 'push the berries into the batter' way. So what you are seeing in the picture above is a good five minutes before I yelped and told my brother to bring all the berries out of the fridge for me. Very unusual for me to forget ingredients in a cake, because the first thing I do is bring out all the ingredients from the ingredients list. But because I was looking at the ingredients list of just recipe-one, which doesn't list berries, it completely flew over my head. 

So after I had fixed the situation, the cake baked in a 160 degree oven for an hour and a half. To check that it was ready, I stuck a knife in the middle and it came out clean.

The cake was then left to cool completely. When cooled, I simply spooned the tub of crème fraîche over the top and spread it out with the back of a tablespoon. 

And then the remaining half of the berries were piled on top of this.

You then have the choice to dust the top of this with icing sugar and make it snow in the summer time! 

I think 'fresh' is the best word to describe this cake. From the juicy berries, light crème and moist cake, you get a simple yet delicious bake. And I learnt that even though I have made this cake many times before, things can still go wrong. However, there is always a way out. Because of all the fruits and crème, you have to store this cake in the fridge and bring it out at least an hour before you want to eat it. You also have to eat it quickly, within three days, but that should not be so hard. Celebrate good times with two helpings. 

Serves: 10-15 people

Prep Time: 15 minutes 

Baking Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

    For the Cake:

• 250g Unsalted Butter, softened
• 250g Golden Caster Sugar
• 1tsp Vanilla Paste
• 1/4tsp Salt 
• 5 Eggs
• 85g Plain Flour 
• 100g Greek Yogurt
• 250g Self-raising Flour 
• 3tbsp Milk
• 112g Fresh Blueberries 
• 170g Fresh Raspberries 

    For the Topping:

• 300ml Crème Fraîche
• 112g Fresh Blueberries 
• 170g Fresh Raspberries 
• 1tsp Icing Sugar 

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees and butter and line the base of a 23cm loose bottomed tin with greaseproof paper. 
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla paste and salt together. This can be done with a standalone whisk or an electric hand whisk. Beat them until pale and fluffy.
3. Add in the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is mixed in properly before adding the next. If the batter looks slimy, add a tablespoon of plain flour from the 85g and mix this in. Then add in the Greek yogurt and mix this together. 
4. Fold in the rest of the plain flour and all of the self-raising flour. Then pour in the tablespoons of milk. 
5. Spoon half the batter into the prepared tin and then sit on top of this 112g of the blueberries and 170g of the raspberries. Spoon the remaining half of the batter over this and spread out. Place into the oven to bake for an hour and a half. Check to see if it is ready with a knife or toothpick. If it comes out clean, then it is ready. 
6. Leave the cake to cool completely and when cooled, place on your serving plate. Spoon the crème fraîche over the top of it and spread out towards the edges. Then take the remaining berries and tumble them over the top. Finally, dust with icing sugar and serve.