It has been noted that I quite regularly promise baked goods on the weekend, and very rarely deliver. The guilt eventually got to me and I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon in the kitchen, making and eating cake and biscuit mixture. Ridiculously nauseous come Saturday tea time. Bouncing off the walls from a huge sugar high come Saturday evening.
strawberry and elderflower cake...
210g self-raising flour
25g corn flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
225g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
200g strawberries
2 tbls elderflower cordial
to decorate ...
50g unsalted soft butter
250g icing sugar
2 tbls juice from strawberries
1tbls elderflower cordial
Pink food colouring
Strawberry jam
Fresh strawberries
- Preheat oven to 180°C and line two 20cm cake tins
- Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add elderflower cordial, then add the eggs one at a time, being careful not to beat too much or it will curdle. Mush the strawberries until sort of broken down but not too much then pass through a seive (keep the juices, they come in handy later) and stir them in carefully. Seive the flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt and gently fold into the mixture. Divide into the two cake tins and bake for 35 minutes, or until golden on the top and a skewer comes out clean. Once cooked, leave to cool completely - stone cold.
- To ice : Beat the icing sugar into the butter, then add the strawberry juice and the elderflower cordial. You don't want to make it too sloppy - if it gets sloppy, pop it in the fridge for half an hour before you use it.
- To assemble: Dollop the icing on the top of both cakes, spreading evenly around to the edges. On one of the iced cakes, spread jam on top of the icing then add sliced strawberries on top of that. Put the other iced cake on top ..... and serve. If you find it's a bit dribbly, keep it in the fridge until the icing is set. Corrrrr.
