Using fresh raspberries means that the cake won't keep for long. Diana Henry suggests that you eat it on the day that it's baked, otherwise the raspberries in the icing will spoil. What are you waiting for? Dive on it and grab a slice (or two).
Make Diana Henry's raspberry yoghurt cake
Each bite of this moist and tangy yoghurt cake comes with the sweet burst of fresh raspberries. If you have your eye on the seasons, British raspberries come into their own between June and early September, which means this bake is perfectly suited for hazy summer days
Serves 12
Preparation time 25 mins
Cooking time 1hr15
Ingredients
For cake
- 125g unsalted butter, plus more for the tin
- 225g caster sugar
- finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
- 300g plain flour, sifted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 115g natural yoghurt
- 200g raspberries
For the icing
- 150g icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 10 raspberries
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Butter a 22 x 12 x 7cm loaf tin and line the base with baking parchment.
- Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the lemon zest and vanilla. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Put 2 tbsp of the flour in a bowl to toss with the raspberries later. Mix the remaining flour and baking powder together and fold this into the batter, alternating with spoonfuls of the yoghurt.
- Toss the raspberries with the reserved flour. Put a third of the batter into the loaf tin and add half the raspberries, spreading them out evenly. Put another othird of the batter on top, followed by the rest of the raspberries. Finish with the remaining batter.
- Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. A skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean. If the top seems to be colouring too much during cooking, cover it with foil. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.
- Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice until smooth. Spread about two-thirds of this on the cake.
- Partly crush the 10 raspberries and add them to the remaining icing. Don't completely mix them in, you just want them to stain bits of the icing.
- Pour over the cake. This won't set firmly, but do leave it to set a little before serving.
From Simple by Diana Henry; photograph by Laura Edwards. Mitchell Beazley, £25 octopusbooks.co.uk.
