3/4 lb Sm. tart green gooseberries 6 oz Butter
5 Elderflower blossoms* 6 oz Pale muscovado sugar
1/2 lb Plain wholemeal flour Demerara sugar
2 ts Baking powder Flowers & leaves to garnish
2 lg Eggs
*Note: A handful of sweet geranium or lemon balm leaves may be substitued
for elderflower blossoms if desired.
Top and tail the gooseberries into a mixing bowl. Add the finely chopped
leaves or the florets of elderflower carefully stripped from the stalk, and
stir to mix with the fruit. Sift the flour and baking powder into a
separate bowl. Cut then rub in the butter. Stir in the muscovado sugar
then the lightly beaten eggs. Finally, stir in the gooseberries and their
flavourings.
Grease the base of an 8-inch spring-clip cake tin, line and grease again.
Turn the cake mixture into it and mound it up in the middle. Bake at 350 F
(180 C) gas mark 4 for about 1 1/2 hours. Unlike most cakes, this one does
not come away from the sides of the tin when it is cooked.
Cool for a few minutes before unmoulding. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and
decorate with fresh elder blossom or sweet geranium or melissa leaves, and
serve the deliciously moist cake while it is still warm – as a pudding,
with plenty of cream.
Yields
8 servings