Saturday 3 December 2011

Raspberry Blueberry Soured Cream Cake


This cake was purely the result of staring in the fridge and wondering what to make to use up various ingredients. These included blueberries and raspberries on offer from the shops, and soured cream with no future plans attached to it.

The recipe is effectively something I've made up, but based extremely loosely on Nigella's Chocolate soured cream cake, insofar as I looked at her recipe before I started making this one!


Raspberry Blueberry Soured Cream Cake
Ingredients
130g softened butter
150g sugar
175g self raising flour
100g soured cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g raspberries (1 punnet)
handful of blueberries (?60g)

Method
-Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line an 8"/20cm square tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.
- Add the soured cream, eggs, vanilla extract and flour and beat again until everything is just incorporated.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level out with a spatula.
- Sprinkle the fruit over the top of the cake.
- Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool a little in the tin and then turn out and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack.


I cut them into relatively small squares and they were the perfect accompaniment for morning tea-break. Really soft and moist cake, with a lovely juicy burst from the raspberries and blueberries. I don't normally buy fruit so out of season, but this was about a month ago, and believe it or not, the raspberries were marked as British, and as they looked such good quality and smelled nice too, I succumbed to the reduced-to-clear offer. And actually, I'm glad that I did because I thoroughly enjoyed this simple cake.


I think that Christmas baking will happen at some point - I keep thinking about it and know that Christmassy baking is popping up all over the place but I haven't got into the Christmas mood just yet. I think part of the problem is that there are so many things I see and want to make that I just don't know where to begin :-)

Any suggestions for things that'll get me in a Christmassy mood and make me want to bake? Anything special that you're planning for Christmas? or anything that is a permanent fixture in your Christmas baking? All comments and suggestions gratefully received!

10 comments:

Jean said...

This looks gorgeous, exactly my kind of cake and I happen to have both raspberries and blueberries in the fridge.....thanks for the recipe.

Suelle said...

Don't worry C - unless you're baking a Christmas cake, or there are going to be hoards to feed, then you don't need to worry about Christmas yet.

None of my family really like the traditional Christmas treats, apart from mince pies, so I'm always on the lookout for new ideas. We usually have a chocolate dessert, and this month's Waitrose Kitchen magazine has a very tasty looking chocolate cake with a fresh cranberry filling baked in.

And I will definitely be making Dan Lepard's Stollen Bars from today's Guardian magazine.

Don't know how to get you in the mood though - how about a small bowl of cinnamon, cloves and orange peel on the kitchen counter? If it smells like Christmas, then perhaps your brain will be convinced.

Oh - nearly forgot - lovely cake recipe, even if it isn't seasonal! :-)

Alicia Foodycat said...

That cake looks lovely!

I don't have any plans for Christmas baking this year.

Anonymous said...

C, as I was reading this post, I thought.."ooh, doesn't that cake look Christmassy.." :)

Looks like you're already off to a flying start! I've bought dried fruit, although I'm not sure I'll have the energy to turn them into fruit cakes this year!

cocoa and coconut said...

Well done for making this up youreslf, and having success as well! Looks lovely

Unknown said...

Oh god don't worry about the Christmas baking. There are millions of bloggers out there doing it and you can be one of those doing normal everyday fabulous stuff (we still need to eat right?) I've made 1 batch of mincemeat with which I'm making pies and probably ice cream and then that's it! I love your recipe for this wonderful cake. Adapting for what you have in the fridge is the most satisfying baking I find xx

Anonymous said...

No suggestions from me either. I'm still playing the "hmm, what's in fridge and what shall I turn it into" game as well.
These do look scrumdidliumptious though.

Baking Addict said...

These look really moist and delicious. I love using up leftovers in the fridge - often make the best recipes! I havent really started xmas baking and prob won't do a huge amount. I did make some gingerbread yesterday. How about some cookies to start?

The Caked Crusader said...

Gorgeous colours and very festive for the time of year.
Oddly, I don't really like any of the trad Christmas bakes such as mince pies, fruit cake etc - I just make what I like and jazz it up with some holly!

Anna's kitchen table said...

That looks very nice, I'm sure the fruit adds a lovely burst of flavour.

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