Raspberry and Almond Cakes- Sweet and Light

You can swap for blackberries later in the year

Icing sugar, ground almonds, flour and 2 beaten eggs

A light, runny batter

Top with raspberries

Easy and yet impressive- my favourite sort of recipe!

A light texture

Working up a great apetite

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The sun has been shining and summer fruits are bursting forth.

These little raspberry and almond cakes are sweet, light and more-ish. They are incredibly easy to make and can be conjured up in a flash, with very little washing up. Perfect for a picnic, moist and fresh enough to be served for summer entertaining  but delicious and different enough to pass as an excellent dinner party finale. So they are splendidly versatile but I think they are just perfect with a mid morning cup of tea, after a long dog walk by the sea.

My children are not terribly fond of cooked fruit. However, they love these cakes and enjoy helping me to make them. They will be in our picnic bag tomorrow.

You can swap the raspberries for blackberries, later in the year. Personally I don’t think strawberries work quite so well here as the sweet almond cake batter calls for a sharper contrast.

This recipe is adapted from Rachel Allen’s “Little Raspberry Cakes” in “Rachel’s Favourite Food”.

These quantities make 12 cakes in a bun tray lined with fairy cake cases where the baking time is @ 15 minutes. I make slightly larger ones in muffin cases where the mixture stretches to 9. The cooking time for these small muffin sized cakes is 25- 30 minutes.

Tin

A muffin or bun tray lined with cases.

Oven

Pre-heat your oven to 170C (160C Fan)/ Gas Mark 3

Ingredients

150g unsalted butter

175g icing sugar

100g ground almonds

50g plain flour

2 large eggs

35-40 fresh raspberries (more if they are very small)

Method

1. Melt the butter and leave it to cool slightly.

2. Measure the flour, icing sugar and almonds into a bowl.

3. Lightly beat the eggs with a fork and then stir into the dry ingredients.

4. Add the melted butter to the mixture and stir until you have a smooth, well combined batter (it will be quite runny).

5. Spoon the mixture into the cases. Top each cake with 4 large raspberries (more if they are small).

6. Bake in the centre of the oven. @15 minutes if you are doing small cakes in “fairy cake” cases and 25-30 minutes if you are making small muffin sized cakes. When ready, the cakes will be risen, golden and feel firm in the centre.

7. Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving. I actually like these cakes still slightly warm from the oven.