raspberry sponge loaf

Forgive me...it's been too long.
Is your tummy rumbling as much as mine? fear not, this should fill the holes!

Ingredients
8oz unsalted butter
8oz golden caster sugar
4 medium free-range eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp golden syrup
8oz self-raising flour

Method
Pre-heat the oven to Gas mark 4 (160),
Line the base of a 2lb tin and grease the sides.  Cut the parchment, or greaseproof if you prefer, so that it extends all the way up to beyond the top of the tin at the shorter ends.  This way you will be able to lift the cake out of the tin, once it has cooled.

Cream the butter in an electric mixer, if you have one, if not - by hand with a wooden spoon.  Once smooth and silky, set on a low speed mix and, a little at a time, and the golden caster sugar.  Once combined, turn up the setting a little and mix until slightly paler in colour and any lumps are either very very small or non-existent!  If you are mixing by hand then good job to you! you surely have spectacular guns.

Break the eggs into a smaller separate bowl and whisk lightly with the vanilla extract and golden syrup.  A little tip to get the golden syrup off of the spoon is to dip the spoon in a little vegetable oil before hand, wipe it clean and then tuck into the syrup - it will slide of the spoon with ease!

A little at a time, and with the mixer on a low speed setting, add the whisked eggs into the sugar / butter mix.  The eggs are added a little at a time to prevent the mixture from curdling, which it will do as it will be getting fairly wet.  If it should curdle, don't panic, just stop adding the eggs for a moment and turn the mixer up to a higher setting until the ingredients are combined.  Then continue adding the eggs on a lower setting, as before.

Once all combined, mix on a medium setting for around 2 minutes then remove from the electric mixer.
Sift the flour into the mixture, a few tablespoons at a time, folding the flour into the mixture as you go.  Make sure you get into the edges of the bowl and through the mixture as flour has a habbit of making little pockets within the air gaps in the mixture.

 

Once all the flour has been added and folded into the batter, the mixture is ready to meat the heat!
Spoon approximately two thirds of the mixture into your pre-lined loaf tin and, very gentle, level it out slightly and ease it towards the sides of the tin with a spatula, so that it gets into the corners.  Now, time to get fruity!  Make sure you rinse the fruit and dry it with some kitchen paper before assembling into in the middle of the sponge, setting it in a wee bit from the edges, so that the raspberries don't touch the edge of the tin.  By doing this it also means that the raspberry's will be a little surprise to the first slicer!

"Oh, how divine, delicious super berries in the middle of the sponge - must be one of my five a day - pa-ha! What a lovely surprise!"

Spoon the remainder of the mixture over the berries, push gently into the edges and corners of the tin.
Place the tin in the oven for 30-40minutes or until golden on top and a skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin completely before lifting out and serving with, oh, i don't know, a lovely glass of blush Prosecco!

xx