I don’t know when it happened exactly. That precise moment when it all changed. All I know is that this year I have fallen in love with gooseberries. The green variety, the translucent one, with its beautiful skin and quite unique shape. I have read about the read variety, the dessert type so they say, but I am yet to see it. I have been asking around so that next year I can try it. It was probably a process that started at my local PYO centre – Garsons in Easher. For years I have not cared the least about them. Well, for a very long time I did not even know that they existed – we don’t have them at home, and in the circles that I lived nobody talked about them.so they were invisible to me. I only knew of the expression ‘to feel like a gooseberry’. However, last year or the year before – I can’t be very exact, I bought some frozen gooseberries and made some lovely muffins. They tasted so lovely that I then decided to pick them up when in season the following year to bake the same muffins again.
I watched the PYO calendar with great attention this year and once I saw gooseberries available for picking I set a Sunday morning aside just to do that. I even managed to persuade a friend to come with me. I made the muffins again, and then decided that I should try a new recipe. Going through my books I came across one by Sophie Grigson which arranges recipes by season. It had this recipe of gooseberry cake in which one needs to add stewed fruit. I had to look for another recipe in order to do the one stewed gooseberries. Google as always came to the rescue and after reading quite a few I ended up with a hybrid recipe. I did get a bit annoyed that I had a recipe within a recipe but in the end I just loved the stewed gooseberries so much that I forgot about my annoyance.
I chose to bake the cake in individual moulds just because I always prefer this method. Whichever size tin you decide to use it will not change the fact that you will end up with delicious cakes(cake). The final product is moist, with a unique perfume to it, and the flavour of the gooseberries is present but not sickening. It tastes really delicious, not too sweet. It also lasts for quite a bit if you keep it in a tin – around 5 days. This is if you resist the temptation to eat the cake within a few hours from it being ready. Yes, I did like it that much, but no, I didn’t eat it all in one go. My waistline cannot go any further.
Now I am already looking forward to next year season and this time I will have a selection of new recipes to try. This relationship has to contiue being exciting.
Ingredients:…
- 280g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 110g caster sugar
- 110g Demerara sugar
- 110g butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs
- 300ml stewed gooseberries
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Preparation:
Pre-heat the oven – 180C (160C fan assisted). Grease and line the base of a 23 cm cake tin or individual cake moulds.. Set aside.
Stew the gooseberries – use the recipe that your prefer. Remember that if you use a recipe of sweetened stwewed berries, the sugar in the recipe should be reduced otherwise you will end up with a cake far too sweet.
Mix the flour with the baking powder, salt and the two sugars – I like doing that with a fouet to air the mixture. Make a whole in the middle of the mixture and add melted butter, eggs, stewed gooseberries and the vanilla extract. Beat the mixture well. Once ready transfer it to the tin and sprinkle it with Demerara sugar. Bake for about 45 minutes if using the 23cm tin. Adjust the time in the oven if using individual tins – around 25/30 minutes.
I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with gooseberries, I never seem to come across them. I love that pretty ribbon! We must go PYO at some point this summer.
There are no more gooseberries at my local PYO anymore. However I saw gooseberries at Waitrose this weekend – for the first time this summer. YOu might be able to find it near you. PYOs are so much fun. I love them.
These look really lovely. I hadn’t thought of putting gooseberries in cake before, I usually put them in syllabub or creamy desserts. Must try it
Great post and I love gooseberry’s at the moment I’m obsessed with golden raspberry’s, you have inspired me to do a post on them 🙂
I made this cake and its delicious. The combination of gooseberrys and vanilla works very well. However I had to guess at the size of tin. Was that 23cm square or 23cm diameter round?