The more than occasional baker: gooseberry

Showing posts with label gooseberry. Show all posts

Monday, 27 July 2015

Gooseberry Crumble Cake

I mentioned in a previous post that I was given a large amount of fresh gooseberries from a colleague's garden. When I was looking for recipes, I came across this gooseberry crumble cake recipe by Nigel Slater. I followed his recipe and added a sprinkle of brown sugar on top before baking and the cake turned out beautifully. I'm not a fan of gooseberries mainly because they are too tart for me and have a very squidgy texture but in this cake it's absolutely delicious. The sponge is light and I loved the crumble topping. The gooseberries themselves tasted great! J got to taste test the gooseberry and orange drizzle cake as well as this one and he said this cake won hands down. I'm definitely making this again but with the addition of almond flakes on top as it will add extra nuttiness and crunch to the cake. I've been given even more gooseberries so looks like I'll be baking with them for the next few weeks or months!

I'm sending this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren as gooseberries are in season.

I'm also sending it to Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. The gooseberries are fresh from my colleague's garden.

lovely fresh gooseberries

cake batter

add fresh gooseberries on top

add crumble mix

I decided to sprinkle some brown sugar on top

fresh from the oven

You can just see the gooseberries under the crumblelayer here

Recipe from Nigel Slater - scroll to second recipe on the page. The only change I made was to sprinkle some brown sugar on top before baking.

Sunday, 12 July 2015

Gooseberry and Orange Drizzle Cake

My colleague gave me a huge box of fresh gooseberries from her garden. I don't think I've ever baked with them before and apart from making a gooseberry fool I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I turned to twitter and got a few very helpful suggestions including jam, crumble, cobbler or tart. As I was short on time, I decided to bake a cake and used a BBC Good Food recipe. It's essentially a light sponge cake with orange zest and fresh gooseberries and an orangle drizzle to go on top. The gooseberries sunk to the bottom of the cake and gave a lovely tart bite to the cake. The orange complemented the gooseberries well as it's a subtle citrus flavour which has a sweetness to it unlike lemon or lime.

I'm sending this to Formula 1 Foods hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes. The idea is to cook something inspired by the country that is hosting the Formula 1 race. This time it's in the UK which opens up a lot of possibilities particularly with using seasonal produce. It was good timing then that I got this box of gooseberries as they are very British.