strawberry silke cake
rating:An online friend of mine, Hester, made this for a friend's wedding, and it is reposted with her permission.
grated zest of a small lemon
6 oz butter
2-3 oz high-fruit content strawberry jam (I used Bonne Maman)
3-4 oz sugar (so that the jam and suar together come to 6 oz)
2 eggs
2 oz ground almonds
4 oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
juice of a small lemon
1 1/2 oz icing sugar
Creme de fraise des bois (strawberry liquor)
Pre-heat the oven to GM 5, about 180oc.
Thoroughly grease a cake tin (I either line the bottom with baking parchment, or grease it and then sprinkle with ground almonds).
In a saucepan, gently heat the butter, lemon zest, jam and sugar, stirring frequently, until the butter has melted and the sugar has turned to sludge; don't let it boil or burn. Take this off the heat, and let it cool down a bit.
Add the eggs, almonds, flour and baking powder, and mix; it will make a fairly runny batter. Pour this into the prepared cake tin, and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice, and add a couple of tablespoonfuls of the strawberry liqueur.
When the cake is cooked, poke holes all over it with a toothpick or skewer, and then gently spoon the strawberry mix all over the surface, allowing it to run down the holes. Turn the oven off, and put the cake back in for 20 minutes or so; this allows the wet bits to dry off so they're not soggy, and gets rid of the alcohol but keeps the strawberry flavour.
For the wedding, this was topped with cream cheese frosting (I didn't use very exact quantities for this, but by weight it's about two parts icing sugar to one part butter and one and a half parts cream cheese, beaten thoroughly until smooth; check how it tastes, and adjust with more sugar or more cream cheese or maybe a splash of lemon juice, to taste), and served with fresh berries and a fruit coulis, which was really lovely.