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

Caroline's Chocolate Cheesecake

Well really it's the Hummingbird Bakeries cheesecake, but Caroline was the lovely lady to introduce me to this amazing recipe. Aside from the 1,000,000 calories per slice and the fact that you'll feel like some sort of tragic Bridget Jones character when you buy the ingredients (two big bars of chocolate, biscuits, cream cheese and butter), it really is worth making.

My main recommendation for this recipe is to use a good quality spring form tin. Mine cost a fiver from Argos and was pretty useless as the base didn't fit properly, resulting in butter leaking out all over the fridge. There is now a gross ring of congealed butter on one of the shelves which will stay there until I have the time and the inclination to clean it. Bleugh.

You can find the recipe here

Buttery biscuit base:

200g melted Green and Blacks - yum!

One baked cheesecake:

The finished article: