Raspberry and Limoncello Cake

Despite the awful floods across the country at the moment, with the evenings growing lighter and daffodils poking their heads up, I’ve got that spring-is-coming feeling. It feels like it’s been a long, wet winter and I’m already dreaming of pretty summer dresses and cold pints of cider in the beer garden. Spring always makes me think of Afternoon Tea with something fruity, so I felt like making something that tasted fresh and light. This recipe is kind of adlibbed from Lorraine Pascal’s Blueberry and Limoncello Drizzle Cake in her book ‘A Lighter Way to Bake’. Basically, I didn’t have any blueberries and a whole freezer full of raspberries leftover from the summer.

I am always quite dubious about ‘healthy cake’ recipes, but this is actually delicious and fluffy. Plus I feel like I can justify eating two slices…

Ingredients

125g caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, softened

100g full-fat Greek yogurt

2 eggs

250g self-raising flour

4 egg whites

2tsp baking powder

½ tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 2 lemons

200g raspberries (or blueberries)

50g icing sugar

2tbsp Limoncello

Start by preheating the oven to 170⁰C and preparing a 20-cm round tin with baking parchment.

I used the KitchenAid for this, but you could just as easily use a hand-held electric whisk.

Bung the sugar, butter and yogurt together and mix until well combined. Because of the nature of the yogurt it will probably look a little bit lumpy, but that’s normal.

Add the two whole eggs and half of the flour. Beat until the mixture looks more like typical cake batter.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until light and fluffy. I have to admit here that I cheated a little and used the Two Chicks egg whites in a carton. I know that’s awful but what on earth are you supposed to do with four discarded egg yolks?! And no, I am not going to make my own mayonnaise. What a load of faff.

Beat in the remaining flour, baking powder, vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste) and lemon zest, along with the fluffy egg whites. You should end up with a nice smooth batter.

Stir in half of the berries.

Turn out the batter into your prepared tin, using your spatula to even out the mixture.

Arrange the rest of the fruit how you like on top of the cake.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 30-45 minutes, or until a skewer when inserted into the cake comes out clean. I think in the end this cake took about an hour in my oven, so you have to use your instincts on this one. If you’re worried about the top burning, pop some brown paper over the cake.

In a small bowl mix together the icing sugar and Limoncello. Lorraine’s recipe says to wait until the cake has cooled to pour it over the top, but I always think with a drizzle cake you want it to melt. Use a spoon to carefully cover the cake, and then place on a nice plate of stand.

This cake is divine when it’s still slightly warm.