It’s always good to have cake in the house when people come to stay, and this weekend our lovely friend (and old flatmate) Katrina came to visit 🙂 So I decided to try out a recipe from Rachel Allen’s ‘Cake‘ and this Bakewell Cake seemed like a good choice. It’s a really easy recipe and tasted delicious!

Ingredients

(for a 20cm/8in diameter cake tin)

150g butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
A few drops (not more than 1/8 teaspoon) of almond essence or extract
50ml milk
150g self-raising flour, sifted
150g ground almonds
150g fresh or frozen (and defrosted) raspberries
25g flaked almonds
Icing sugar for dusting
Whipped cream and raspberries to decorate (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4, then butter the sides of the cake tin and line the base with a disc of baking parchment.

2. Cream the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3. Whisk the eggs and the almond essence or extract together in a small bowl for a few seconds or until just combined, then gradually add the eggs to the creamed butter mixture, beating all the time. Next beat in the milk, then add the flour and ground almonds, carefully folding these in until they are just mixed.

4. Next add the raspberries and fold in gently so as not to break them up too much. Tip the batter into the prepared tin, then scatter over the flaked almonds. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Use a small sharp knife to loosen the edges, the carefully remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to a serving plate.

6. Dust with icing sugar (as you can see, I forgot that bit!), and you could serve with softly whipped cream and decorate with fresh raspberries. And don’t forget to enjoy with a cuppa! 🙂

Post updated 28th September 2016.

If you want to make an extra special version of this delicious cake, check out my recipe for Bakewell cake with raspberry curd filling – just click on the link below to find the recipe 🙂