Vanilla Sponge with Raspberries & Cream

On Sunday Chris completed the Great South Run and helped to raise over £2,000 for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. If anyone would like to donate, you can do so here. I thought the best way to celebrate was with a cake, so I made this indulgent sponge.

Jam, cream & raspberries!

I'm not much of a baker, but this recipe is really quick and easy. You could use strawberries instead, but I prefer the sharpness of the raspberries with the creamy filling. I used St. Dalfour all natural jam which is super fruity and not too sweet.

Oozing with filling

For the cake:
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:
4 tbsp good quality raspberry jam
Punnet fresh raspberries
150g mascarpone
150ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp caster sugar
50g flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Grease and line two sandwich tins. Mix together all the cake ingredients in a large bowl, until the mixture is smooth and creamy
2. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cake tins and smooth the top with a spatula. Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden
3. Remove the cakes from their tins and leave to cool on a rack. Put the almonds in a small tin and bake in the oven, checking every few minutes until they are lightly toasted. It only takes a few minutes for them to burn, so make sure you check them regularily
4. Meanwhile whisk the cream until it has thickened, this should only take a few minutes. Add the mascarpone, vanilla extract and sugar and whisk into the cream
5. Now it's time to assemble the cake! Spread the jam on the bottom layer, then add half of the cream mixture and the raspberries. Put the second cake on top, then finish with the rest of the cream and the almonds

Topped with toasted almonds

Toffee Apple Bread & Butter Pudding

Due to a leaking pipe, I spent 2 days of my Easter break waiting around for the plumber. This gave me plenty of time to catch up on 90210 and for cooking tasty treats! I love traditional bread & butter pudding but this version is even better, the apples are a delicious addition and the toffee custard makes it even more sweet and moreish than usual.

I only made half the recipe below and it served 5, so unless you have lots of people coming over or you want to eat bread & butter everyday for a week, just do half the recipe!

Serves 8

50g/2oz butter

6 apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

175g/6oz golden caster sugar

568ml pot double cream

400g brioche loaf, cut into finger thick slices then into triangles

100g/4oz raisins

4 egg yolks

1. Heat the butter in a non stick frying pan until sizzling. Add the apples and 150g of the sugar. Cook over a high heat until the apples are caramelised and juicy
2. Stir in the cream, bring to boil and cook for one minute. Strain the apples and collect the cream in a jug
3. Layer an ovenproof dish with brioche, apples and raisins. Finish off the top layer with brioche and raisins
4. Whisk the egg yolks into cream and ladle over the pudding. Sprinkle over remaining sugar and bake at 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 for 35–40 minutes until crisp and golden
5. Serve with cream or ice cream

Apples cooking:

Before it went in the oven:

Cooked bread & butter pudding - tasty:

White Chocolate Panna Cotta with Berry Compote

After eating salad for dinner on Saturday evening, it only seemed right to have something outrageously unhealthy for dessert. The main ingredients for panna cotta are double cream, chocolate and sugar, so there really isn't anything healthy about it!

The recipe is one of my mum’s, I’m not really sure where she first read it, but a lot of her favorite recipe’s come from Good Food. It’s super easy to make and only takes a moment to dish up which is perfect after a few glasses of wine. With 2 pots of double cream, it’s quite heavy, but the sharpness of the berries cuts through the richness.

Serves 8

100g Green & Blacks white chocolate, broken up into squares

600ml double cream

200ml semi-skimmed milk

50g caster sugar

4 gelatin sheets

For the berry compote:

500g bag frozen summer fruit, defrosted

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Add the cream, milk, sugar and chocolate to a pan, put on a low heat until the chocolate has melted. Meanwhile soak the gelatin in cold water
2. Take the mixture off the heat and add the gelatin, stir until it has melted, this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes
3. Pour the mixture into individual ramekins and leave to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours
4. To make the compote, add half the fruit to a pan with the water and sugar. Simmer until the berries have begun to burst, add to the rest of the fruit and serve with the panna cotta 

Panna cotta: