Recipe Time Again: Raspberry Bakewell Loaf Cake

Everyone likes a recipe so here's this week's effort for our village Pop-up Cafe. I fancied something with almonds and came across a recipe for a Raspberry Bakewell Loaf Cake on the Something Sweet Something Savoury food blog. It was worth a try and the cakes seemed to have come out OK. As is my customary practice, I double-up on the quantities shown and put one in the freezer for future use. We've got eight lurking there now as the process is not at equilibrium: the rate in is greater than the rate out. With Xmas coming, maybe we'll be able to reduce our stockpile somewhat.

 

Ingredients:
150g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g ground almonds
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 right index finger for tasting at various stages 
1 left index finger (ditto above because I can multitask)
50ml milk (I used almond milk because I had some in the fridge)
150g self raising flour
150g fresh raspberries
About 3 tablespoons raspberry jam
75g icing sugar
25g flaked toasted almonds

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a loaf tin with, what else but, a loaf tin liner.
Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Whisk the eggs and almond extract in a jug and slowly add to the creamed mixture. Add the milk, still beating and then gently fold in the flour and ground almonds with a metal spoon. Finally stir in the raspberries very carefully so that they aren't crushed. Spoon half of the mixture into the prepared tin then spoon over the raspberry jam.

I couldn't be bothered to be neat so just dotted teaspoons of the jam on top of the mixture to get a reasonably even spread. And then the rest of the mixture is dumped on top and smoothed out with a fork.

Into the oven for around 45-50 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To ice the cake, place the icing sugar in a bowl and stir in a few drops of water until the icing coats the back of a spoon quite thickly. Spoon over the cold cake and sprinkle with flaked almonds. I think what I made was a little too runny as it set translucent rather than the opaquely white finish I was intending. Still, it will taste the same and the punters won't know the difference. Or maybe they will. They usually give me some honest feedback: one of my earlier cakes had a slight dip in the middle (actually it was quite a trench and I disguised it with a thick layer of mascarpone frosted topping) was described by Mrs H as the 'Titanic Cake'.

And the verdict after the event? Even if I do say so myself (corroborated by Mrs P), it looks and tastes pretty good. One to do again but with a more determined effort to make a better job at getting the jam layer more uniform. And the icing topping could be improved as well, with maybe the addition of a few drops of almond essence? And a few more raspberries wouldn't go amiss.