- Makes a double-layered 7 inch / 18cm cake - Ready in 1.5 hours (including cooling time) -
Gather together…
170g butter (quite thinly sliced and warmed for 3 minutes in the heating-up oven until soft, but not fully melted).
170g white sugar (caster sugar or granulated sugar both work), sieved to remove lumps.
140g SR flour, sieved to incorporate air.
2 tsp baking powder, sieved to avoid unpleasant-tasting lumps.
85g cocoa powder, sieved.
3 tbsp hot water (not quite boiling - from a cooling kettle or from the hot tap is fine).
4 medium eggs (or 3 large eggs), beaten slightly.
15 fresh raspberries.
Decorate with...
3 tbsp (45g) raspberry jam (shop bought or homemade) - click here for my Oven-Baked Raspberry Jam recipe, which needs just 250g fresh raspberries, 250g white caster / granulated sugar and 1 tsp lemon juice. It bakes in 30 minutes and cools enough to use in the cake in another 30 minutes. Yum!
Get cooking…
1. Preheat the oven to 170 C (150 C fan) or Gas 3.
2. Now warm the 170g of sliced butter in the heating-up oven for 3 minutes (set a timer so you don’t forget it!) - use a small, robust ceramic or metal bowl, and be careful when removing the hot bowl. Some of the butter will actually melt (which isn't a disaster), most will still be solid yet soft.
3. Meanwhile, butter-grease and base-line with baking paper (and then re-grease) two circular 18cm (7 inch) diameter baking tins. Or better still, use re-usable cake tin liners (cut-to-size liners are available from Lakeland).
4. In a medium / large mixing bowl, cream together the 170g of very softened butter and the 170g of (sieved) white sugar BY HAND (this recipe works best without an electric mixer, as the cake dislikes being over-mixed), for about 30 seconds.
5. Sieve in the 140g of SR flour and sieve in the 2 tsp of baking powder. Don't mix yet.
6. Sieve in the 85g of cocoa powder. Stir slightly to just start to mix the dry ingredients, don't yet mix down to the bottom of the bowl where the buttery-sugar is though.
7. Add the 3 tbsp of hot (not boiling) water. Don't stir any more yet (we are trying to avoid over-mixing the flour).
8. In a jug, beat the 4 medium eggs for 30 seconds with a fork, until the whites and yolks are well mixed.
9. Add the beaten eggs to the other ingredients in the bowl.
10. Mix the cake batter until just combined (this will take about 1 minute by hand using a metal spoon), over-mixing will make the cake chewy and tough!
11. This cake batter is quite a stiff consistency, it probably won't drop off a spoon in under 5 seconds (my usual test). This is fine. If it worries you, stir in up to 2 tbsp more of hot water - the cakes may take a little longer to cook if you do this.
12. Using digital scales (if available) weigh approximately 380g of mixture into each (greased and lined 18cm tin), or divide the mixture by eye.
13.Gently spread and level the mixture, to ensure it covers the whole tin (as it is a stiff, dry-ish mixture and struggles to spread out by itself).
14. Into ONE of the tins, press approximately 15 fresh raspberries (dome side up) into the mixture - I spread them out as if they were on a clock face (although I couldn't fit 12 around the edge) plus a few in the middle. The cake mixture isn't very deep, so the raspberries will stick out quite a lot - this is fine as the cake will rise around them as it bakes.
15. Bake the tins for 20 - 30 minutes on the MIDDLE shelf. DO NOT OPEN DOOR to check on them until AFTER 20 minutes of baking time.
16. Once the cakes feel springy when poked and when you see that the edges have shrunk slightly in away from the tin, test the cakes with a skewer - the skewer will come out clean from the middle once they are cooked.
17. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool in their tins for 5 minutes. Cover the tins with a clean tea towel to keep insects away.
18. Turn out each cake onto a wire rack - be careful not to squash the raspberries! I turned the raspberry-studded cake out onto a folded tea towel (old but clean) to cushion them. Leave the cakes to cool (under a tea towel) for 30 minutes.
19. Once the cakes are fairly cool (they don't need to be fully cooled), make sure the cakes are both dome-side up. So the very base of the cake is a flat surface so that the top is a slight dome.
20. Mix the 3 tbsp of raspberry jam in a small bowl, to give a smooth consistency (unless you are using homemade jam which has a runnier texture anyway - perfect for soaking into this cake) and then sandwich the cakes together, ensuring you spread right to the edges as a bit of visible filling makes the cake look even more delicious. (N.B. The runnier homemade jam will actually need keeping a little bit away from the edge, as it spreads out anyway).
21. Once fully cooled, keep the cake in an airtight container in the fridge and eat it up within 3 days. Enjoy!
Adapted from a recipe in Florence Greenberg's 'Jewish Cookbook' and decorated with raspberries thanks to being inspired by Bake Off's Briony May Williams' beautiful flourless Chocolate and Raspberry Cake for Good Housekeeping.