These two recipes, raspberry & rose sponge cake and raspberry & elderflower cordial, are current favourites. They are great served together, or separately, and would be lovely additions to an afternoon tea or celebration over the warmer months.
The flavours raspberry and rose are clearly firm favourites for me, and this cake in particular showcases how well they go together.
Hopefully, now I have baked and posted these few recipes using flavours and ingredients I particularly love, I can move on to some new or different flavours than those I have been baking with recently. I saw a post on Instagram yesterday from someone who was talking about how they wanted to get more into cooking and was considering taking some classes. They then realised that they had enough cookbooks to inspire them to cook, and probably didn’t need to spend the money on classes! They resolved to try a new recipe from each of their cookbooks during this year. I think this is a great idea. As our cookbook collection spans at least 144 books, I think I should have enough inspiration and recipes to keep me going for a while, without always falling back on the flavours I love the most.
So, I am giving myself a ‘cookbook challenge’. I am going to try and make something new from each cookbook I own. Hopefully I will discover some new favourites, and hopefully this will challenge me to tackle to daily dilemma that is dinner with more enthusiasm.
A small selection of the cookbook collection.
How many cookbooks do you have in your collection? Do you use them often? Let me know in the comments!
Raspberry & Rose Sponge Cake
Ingredients:
Butter and plain flour, for greasing cake tins
4 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup cornflour
1 tbsp custard powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp rosewater
Ingredients for Icing and Filling:
2 cups icing sugar
1/2 tbsp boiling water
3 tsp rosewater
pink food colouring
1 tbsp rose syrup
1 punnet raspberries
1 cup of thickened cream
edible flowers (fresh or dried), to decorate
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Use a little butter to grease two (20 cm) sandwich tins, then dust them with some flour. Line the base of each tin with baking paper.
Separate the eggs, and set the yolks aside. Place the whites into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until they form stiff peaks. Add the sugar and the rosewater, and beat until the mixture has become stiff and glossy. Add the yolks and beat until just combined. Sift in the dry ingredients, and gently fold into the egg mixture using a large metal spoon.
Divide the mixture between the two tins, and bake for 20 minutes. The cakes will be ready when they are golden in colour and spring back when touched lightly.
Line two cooling racks with baking paper. Remove cakes from their tins, and allow to cool on the prepared racks. Allow to cool completely before icing or filling the cake.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the water and rosewater and mix to form a smooth, slightly thick icing. If the icing is too thick add more water, too runny, more sifted icing sugar. Add a small amount of pink food colouring, and mix to create a light pink icing.
Whip the cream with the rose syrup, then roughly chop the raspberries and gently fold into the cream. Spread the cream over one of the cakes (top side down). It is easiest to ice and fill the cake on the plate you will serve it on. Top with the remaining sponge cake, and ice the cake with the icing. Decorate with edible flowers.
This cake is best served immediately after it is assembled, however, it will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.
Original Recipe found in Country Style Magazine, November 2014 Issue, pp.76-77 (article: ’never too late’, recipe originally by Bill Bevan).
Raspberry and Elderflower Cordial
Raspberry & Elderflower Cordial
Ingredients:
1/2 cup elderflower cordial
1 cup water
1 litre cloudy apple juice
handful frozen raspberries
For Ice Cubes:
ice cube tray
water
raspberries
Method:
Prepare the ice cubes the day before. Place small whole raspberries, or roughly chopped larger raspberries, into an ice cube tray. Cover with water and allow to freeze overnight.
For the cordial, in a 1.5 litre capacity jug, add the elderflower cordial, water and apple juice. Top with a handful of frozen raspberries. Leave in the fridge to chill, and once the frozen raspberries have started to defrost, mix the cordial so it becomes stained with the red colour of the raspberries.
Once ready to serve, add the raspberry ice cubes to the glasses and pour over the cordial.
This recipe was originally published via Liveability.
