Ingredients

For the curd

500g fresh raspberries
4 tablespoons water

4 eggs
12oz (350g) golden caster sugar
8oz (225g) unsalted butter, left at room temperature and cut into small cubes
1 level dessert spoon of cornflour

For the cake (for two 20cm/8in diameter cake tins):

300g butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
A few drops (not more than 1/4 teaspoon) of almond essence or extract
100ml milk
300g self-raising flour, sifted
300g ground almonds
300g fresh or frozen (and defrosted) raspberries
50g flaked almonds
Icing sugar and a little water to make some water icing

For the buttercream (if not using fresh cream)

250g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml semi skimmed milk

A tiny drop of almond extract
 

Method

To make the curd

1. Put the water and berries in a large pan and bring to the boil. Put a lid on the pot and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes or until very soft.

2. Place into a food processor or blender and whizz up very very well. Take care here because the fruit is really hot! Once blended, pour through a fine sieve with a bowl underneath, making sure there are no seeds in the bowl. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before moving on to step 3 – otherwise you may end up scrambling the eggs by mistake!

3. Whisk the eggs in a medium sized pan before adding the rest of the ingredients. Place on a medium heat and whisk continuously with a balloon whisk until the mixture starts to thicken. This takes about 7-8 minutes.

4. Next, lower the heat and let the curd simmer for another minute, continuing to whisk. Pour the curd into the hot, sterilised jars – fill them up as full as you can, and cover with wax disks and seal them quickly.

5. When the jars have cooled, label and store in a cool place.

To make the cake:

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 the flaked almonds over just one of the cakes. 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.

6. As the cakes cool, make the buttercream by creaming together the butter and icing sugar. Add the milk and almond extract and beat until smooth. Place the bottom cake on a serving plate and then spread a few dessert spoons of the raspberry curd over the top. Then spread your buttercream or cream over that before placing the other cake on top.

7. Mix a small amount of water icing so that it is thick enough to pipe. Fill a piping bag with a small-ish nozzle and then pipe lines across the cake, like on the top of a Bakewell tart (no need to worry about precision piping here!). If serving later, you may need to chill it in the fridge, and remove a little while before serving.

Enjoy!

The post Bakewell cake with raspberry curd filling appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Having made my raspberry curd I wanted to make something special with it. My friend Laura returned to work following her maternity leave this week, and this seemed like a perfect excuse! I had a little look online for some recipe ideas and was inspired by this one on the Smells Like Home food blog, but I actually decided to use my tried-and-tested recipe for lemon Victoria sandwich by Mary Berry and make cupcakes instead.

Ingredients (makes 18 muffin-sized cupcakes)

225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Filling/topping

Raspberry curd (click on the link at the top of the page for the recipe)
250g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25ml semi skimmed milk
Finely grated zest of half a lemon

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160F/Gas 4. Place some muffin cases into a muffin tin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Beat the eggs and add the grated lemon zest and mix well. Pour the mix in a little at a time and mix well. Sift in the flour and baking powder and combine together. (Mary’s original recipe suggests using an electric whisk – put all ingredients into a bowl and beat for a couple of minutes).

3. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases – about 1 and a half tablespoons in each is enough as they will rise quite a lot. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until well risen and golden.

4. Leave the cupcakes in the tin to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Ensure they have completely cooled before adding the filling.

5. To make the buttercream, cream together the butter and icing sugar. Add the milk and lemon zest and beat until smooth.

6. Cut out the middle of a cupcake, and then fill the hole with a spoonful of raspberry curd (you can eat the bit you’ve cut out!).

7. Fill a piping bag (using nozzle of your choice) with the buttercream, and pipe over the top.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 with the rest of the cupcakes.

I really need to get a new piping bag – the new one that I tried out for this was pretty rubbish! But they tasted really good so I was pleased with how they turned out. Definitely something to enjoy during an extended tea break!

The post Lemon cupcakes with raspberry curd filling appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Having made my own lemon curd last year, I’ve been completely hooked on it ever since! But not so long ago I discovered raspberry curd (shop-bought) and decided that I’d definitely have a go at making it myself. This weekend I finally got around to doing it – yay! It’s really creamy and zingy at the same time, and if you love lemon curd then you’ll love this too.

I found this recipe on The Claytons Blog – I chose this recipe because it doesn’t require a microwave (we don’t have one). The recipe says to make the curd in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, but after 10 minutes of whisking frantically and nothing happening, I ended up just putting it into a pan (which is what I do with lemon curd). This worked much better, so I’ll just do it in a pan next time!

Ingredients (makes 4 8oz jars)

500g fresh raspberries
4 tablespoons water
125g golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
4 egg yolks plus 2 whole eggs, lightly beaten
125g butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

1. Put the water and berries in a large pan and bring to the boil. Put a lid on the pot and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes or until very soft.

2. Place into a food processor or blender and whizz up very very well. Take care here because the fruit is really hot! Once blended, pour through a fine sieve with a bowl underneath, making sure there are no seeds in the bowl. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before moving on to step 3 – otherwise you may end up scrambling the eggs by mistake!

3. If you would like to use the bowl/pan of water method, place the berry sauce, eggs, butter, sugar, lemon juice and cornflour into the bowl and have a pot of simmering water ready. Place the bowl over the water (making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water) and whisk until the butter melts and the curd is thick. Alternatively, put the eggs into a pan and whisk – then add all of the other ingredients and whisk over a medium-low heat.

4. When the curd is thick, you can pour it into your pre-sterilised jars. Place a wax disk on top and seal the lid tightly.

Store in a cool place (in the fridge once opened) and use within a month. That probably won’t be a problem – it’s so yummy! I’ll be making loads of this when raspberries are in season!

The post Raspberry curd appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.