19.10.2015- Adventures in Baking: Berry Drizzle Loaf Cake

If you, like me, are suffering from serious Bake Off withdrawal (it hasn't even been two weeks!), and find yourself with a strange empty feeling on Wednesday evenings (sob), I've come up with a solution and am convinced that the only logical way to fill the void is with cake. Predictable I know, but a worthwhile pursuit nonetheless, particularly as the chilly weather is more or less a green light for staying in and getting cosy with some treats, don't you think? This bake is one of my most recent, taken once again from BBC Good Food, and although it's labelled as a summer recipe, I think it's pretty perfect for all seasons. A cousin of the lemon drizzle, this berry themed take on an old classic is a real favourite of mine at the moment, and can be adapted to suit whichever fruit is in season:

Berry Drizzle Loaf Cake
 
Ingredients

For the sponge: 2 large eggs, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 100g fruit, stoned and diced (I used raspberries and blueberries), 140g granulated sugar, 175g very soft butter, 175g golden caster sugar, 250g self raising flour

For the drizzle: 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 75g fruit (plus extra for decoration), and icing sugar to finish

Method
1) Warm the oven to 180 degrees fan. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper, making sure to secure in the corners.
2) Mix the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined. The batter will be very thick, so take care with your electric mixer- but don't worry if it seems unmanageable as it needs to be quite dense to absorb the moisture from the fruit.
3) Once mixed, spread a little of the cake batter into the loaf tin, before adding a handful of the fruit. Worth making sure here that your fruit is as dry as possible, especially if you're using ingredients like raspberries which retain a lot of water.
4) Spoon in some more of the cake mixture, adding more fruit. Repeat until the loaf tin is full, and even the mixture out using the back of a spoon.
5) Bake for one hour, until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the loaf. I found that I had to give mine a few minutes longer, which I put down to the volume of fruit which I used!
6) Once cooked, remove the loaf from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Skewer the top of the cake all over.
7) Make the drizzle liquid by mashing your remaining fruit and adding lemon juice. Depending on which fruit you opt to use, you might need to sieve the liquid just to make sure you get rid of any pips/seeds. 
8) Pour the liquid over the cake, leaving to cool completely in the tin.
9) Once entirely cool, remove from the loaf tin and serve. I added fresh berries to the top of mine just for an added bit of decoration, and dusted with a little bit of icing sugar as a finishing touch.
10) Enjoy, and eat within 2-3 days!

Whilst this bake was a little bit more involved (and messier!) than the lemon drizzle, I really enjoyed making it and it tasted fantastic. I'm already looking forward to trying it out with blackberries and an autumnal alternative!

Have you been hitting the kitchen recently?

(Image credit: Sarah Farrell, please do not reproduce without permission.)