The autumn hedgerow-harvests seem to get earlier every year. What once was a task for mid-October now sits comfortably in September. We collect scrambling rosehips to turn into syrup from the streamside hedge, sloes for gin are gathered from the paddock blackthorn, and cobnuts from the copse are squirrelled away for cracking at Christmas. Most prolific though, are the wild blackberries. We pick them by the bowlful for infusing in vinegar, baking in crumbles and scattering into cakes.
Wild Blackberry and Rosewater Cake
Bake a sweet, fresh berry cake with a recipe from Kathy Bishop and Tom Crowford on their Somerset smallholding
Published: August 25, 2020 at 8:59 pm
Ingredients
- 150g Caster sugar
- 75g Butter melted and cooled
- 75g Plain yoghurt
- 1 Egg, beaten
- ½tsp Rosewater
- 50g Ground almonds
- 175g White self-raising flour
- 125g Blackberries
- 2 ½tbsp Icing sugar
- 150g Cream cheese
- A handful of blackberries
Method
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a 20cm circular cake tin.
Step 2
Mix together the sugar, butter, yoghurt, egg, rosewater and ground almonds. Then sift and fold in the flour, followed by the blackberries.
Step 3
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for around 20 minutes until risen, pale golden, and a skewer inserted comes out clean. If the top of the cake looks as though it’s browning too quickly, cover it with some tinfoil for a few minutes to allow the inside to cook through. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out on to a wire rack.
Step 4
(Optional) Make the frosting by sifting the icing sugar into the cream cheese. Stir until smooth.
Step 5
Once the cake is cool, ice the top and decorate with a sprig of blackberries. Alternatively, top the cake with a jumble of blackberries and dried rose petals. An iced cake is best kept in the fridge and eaten within a day or two. The unfrosted sponge will keep for around three days in an airtight container.
The Seaonal Table
Kathy and Tom combine running their Somerset smallholding with full-time jobs, and also find time to write a blog called
The Seasonal Table – a journal of slow food and slow living.
Find out more about The Seasonal Table:
theseasonaltable.co.uk
instagram.com/the_seasonal_table
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Louise Hagger
