{"id":2507,"date":"2015-06-29T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T11:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecherryplumkitchen.com\/?p=2507"},"modified":"2015-06-29T16:24:21","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T15:24:21","slug":"gooseberry-and-elderflower-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecherryplumkitchen.com\/?p=2507","title":{"rendered":"Gooseberry and Elderflower Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I wasn’t fond of gooseberries as a child and I told everyone the reason for that was because they made me ‘blink’. \u00a0I was right. \u00a0They can be lip pursing-ly sour and even the sweetest need sugar. \u00a0What’s more, they are spiteful to pick, with thorns like spears.<\/p>\n

Gooseberry Fool was the only way I was prepared to eat them. \u00a0Now, I’ve branched out but it’s still important to treat them with love – which is probably why they’re not so easy to find. \u00a0If you don’t grow them yourself you’re more likely to find gooseberries at farm shops and farmers’ markets than at the supermarket.<\/p>\n

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(Please note the artistic positioning of gooseberries and elderflowers in this photo.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The parent recipe of this cake features in my mum’s recipe collection as ‘Apple Cake’ and I suspect it will have entered my mum’s life via a ‘parish cookbook’; the kind that’s produced by fantastic home cooks in aid of their Grade I listed 12th bell towers and my mum would always buy when on holiday. \u00a0Warm from the oven, it’s lovely with cream or custard and eaten as a pudding. \u00a0Cold, it’s perfect picnic and packed lunch food.<\/p>\n

Gooseberry and elderflower is an early summer switch away from apple.<\/p>\n

\"Gooseberry<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a wonderfully simple cake and easy to scale up or down. \u00a0It’s the same weight of flour and fruit, in this case gooseberries. \u00a0Half the weight of the flour in sugar and the same of butter. \u00a0A little baking powder and milk to mix. \u00a0That’s it.<\/p>\n

No eggs – which is useful if you’re baking for someone who reacts to the protein in eggs.<\/p>\n

\"Gooseberry<\/a><\/p>\n

14oz\/380g plain flour, mixed with 2\u00bd tsp baking powder.<\/p>\n

\"Gooseberry<\/a><\/p>\n

7oz\/190g butter ‘rubbed in’. \u00a0Using just the tips of your fingers you lightly ‘rub in’ small cubes of butter.<\/p>\n