… my life is a little bit like the proverbial yo-yo and the moment… back and forth to London like i’m attached by an elastic umbilical cord… and this time of year it’s always amazing arriving back at the cottage in the dead of the night and then waking up in the morning to see how the garden has blossomed into full glory, every inch living up to its rightful name as a proper english country garden… it is quite literally picture postcard perfect. I’ll leave it to the master of the garden, The Viking to tell you all about it on his blog… but it always takes my breath away and makes me feel very lucky to have my own little corner of something…
… this week I arrived home to a very sweet little gift from the good people at justmustard.com – this gorgeous i heart cake silicone cake mould… it’s rather a clever little thing that allows you to easily portion up your cake slices into heart shapes… a gimmick i’ll agree but such a cute one that you have to forgive them their little flights of fancy… a word to the wise however… if you are inspired to purchase one of these silicone cake-tins you should place it on a baking tray before it goes into the oven as the silicone is quite floppy and once hot is not easy to handle… I like to spin my cakes half-way through baking and with a regular cake tin you simply reach into the oven and turn it but with the silicone it pulls out of shape so it’s not so easy… plus when you’re ready to take it out of the oven you need very steady hands underneath the silicone or the warping and wobbling will crack your cake… something that having it sat on a baking sheet would eliminate entirely…
raspberry, rose and almond cake
I wanted something suitably romantic to bake in the mould and whilst chocolate would be the obvious choice it’s quite a large cake mould and that’s a heck of a lot of chocolate plus I really wanted something lighter and fruitier for this time of year… The Viking suggested raspberries, which I love and I then remembered a little bottle of rose water I had in the cupboard… which then inspired me to include a little ground almond in the cake mix for that added taste of eastern promise… this was such a simple cake to make and produced spectacular results… I used the ‘weigh the eggs’ method to make the sponge… I realise in the pic the cake looks a little ‘caught’ around the edges but this wasn’t noticeable in the eating…
this recipe is perfect for my heart-shaped mould but would also work in a 20cm spring-form cake tin:
4 large free-range eggs (250g in weight)
250g butter
250g golden caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
2 teaspoons rose water
500g fresh raspberries
pre-heat the oven to 180C and lightly oil your mould or grease you cake tin if using
beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy then add one egg and beat in, followed by a third of the flour and almonds, beating in until combined… continue this way until all the eggs and flour are combined
add the rose water and a quarter of the raspberries and beat them into the batter – the raspberries to break up during this process
spoon half the batter into the cake mould or tin, smoothing out to the edges then lay on the remaining raspberries – leaving a few back for decoration) and then cover with the remaining batter and smooth to the side
bake on 180C for 40 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean
as this cake includes fresh raspberries I am entering it into this months tea time treats bloggers challenge, the theme of which is fresh fruit… the challenge is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked
eat and of course, enjoy!
Ah, that's beautiful.
What a great idea for a cake mould.
Such a lovely cake – some of my very favourite flavours in there. I particularly like the touch of rose water; such an elegant addition.
Saw that tin a while ago and thought HOW CUTE! I do agree though, silicon is pain in the ass apart from for spatulas, in which case I can't live without it. So nice to see someone doing something different with rose water too!
Lovely looking cake, perfect for summer! I do like the cake pan too, very cute!
What a beautiful cake, Dom! And I love using the silicone moulds – they are so easy to clean up!
This is a gorgeous cake, and love the flavour combination too – raspberry and rose being two of my all-time favourite cake flavours. Bookmarked this one to try!
C
http://www.slightlypeckish.co.uk
This is such a cute tin, I love the fact the slices are hearts. I have only just started to like using silicone moulds after some pretty dramatic errors, however I recently had sucsess with a giant cupcake so I'm happy. I agree with the placing on a baking tray makes for much easier removal of the cake from the oven.
Such a neat idea for a cake pan! And the cake flavours! I have some rosewater too and the raspberries will be coming on in the next week or so at the family farm over near Concord! Thanks for the idea on this special summer cake, Dom! As for that cobbler … please do make it and tell me what YOU think! Lighter than air … I'm telling you!
Stunning! Just such gorgeous flavours, raspberry and almond is a classic combination and the addition of rose water is inspired! What a clever cake mould too and thanks for the tip!
Great flavour combination and it looks good too. I really like the cake mould too!
The cake looks lovely all scalloped around the edges in a romantic heart shape. Raspberry and almonds are yummy together in any kind of recipe. LOVE that combination! I know what you mean about the silicone. My mom gave me a muffin silicone pan and it was very floppy.
This looks so scrummilicious I am very tempted to include it in my grand cake bake this weekend. As it's an evening do, I'm looking for more puddingy types of bakes and this might fit right in.
I'm looking forward to receiving the mould myself now.
Now that's my kind of cake! Beautiful x
That sounds delightful and what a pretty cake 'tin' I put my mould into a cake tin to help support it.
Beautiful cake! The combination of flavours sound amazing!
Ps: loving the cake tin used!
Mmmmm yummy sounding cake! Awesome cake mould too!
Thank you for the comments about our new cake mould I Heart Cake. We hope you’ll try the product. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch design@justmustard.com
Very pretty! Love the sound of the flavour combination too, very light and summery.
Great cake – love those flavours. I'm a bit of a fan of silicone moulds but I admit that they do need to be handled differently. I'm still slightly disturbed by the idea of an elastic umbilical cord – sounds painful.
SO sorry to be late replying – I have been living out of a suitcase for the last two weeks! This is a FABULOUS cake for TTT and I also have the same cake mould, although I cooked a lemon cake in mine! FAB thanks Dom, Karen
What a gorgeous looking and sounding cake. I always love the extra browned edges to cakes – they seem to hold the most flavour!
Oh I keep seeing these tins and loving them! Your cake looks amazing too, popping over from Tea Time Treats which I also enter 🙂