lockdown

To continue our Birthday celebrations, vegan blogger and baker, Kat of Kelham Island Kitchen has created this special celebration cake recipe exclusively for us.

Its just the sort of treat you’d expect to find at one of our events. For now, while we’re all staying home to keep ourselves and our community safe, we thought we’d share this gorgeous recipe with you in the hope you might want to get baking and create something truly scrumptious!

Kat says,.. ‘Enjoy a slice of this wonderfully summery Vegan Elderflower and Berry Cake. Making the most of seasonal ingredients,this cake is perfect for enjoying outside with a cup of tea (or a glass of wine). The elderflower gives a subtle floral flavour while the berries add freshness and cut through the sweetness of the cake’

If you do bake your own, tag us in any pics, we’d love to see! Enjoy! (If this recipe is a bit ambititous for you, check out Kat’s Vegan Banana Bread recipe instead; its pretty simple and also totally delicious!)

• 400g Self raising flour
• 200g Caster sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 400ml Plant Milk
• 160ml Vegetable Oil
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 5 tbsp Elderflower Cordial, plus extra for brushing the cake
• 100g Vegan Butter softened
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 150g berries, I used frozen raspberries

1. Pre-heat oven to 160’C (fan)
2. Grease and line two cake tins
3. Combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder in a mixing bowl
4. Add the milk, oil, vanilla and elderflower cordial to the dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth batter
5. Fold in half the berries then split the batter evenly between the two tins
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cakes are golden and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre
7. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins before moving to a cooling rack
8. Brush the top of the cakes with some elderflower syrup
9. To make the icing. Put the rest of the berries in a small saucepan with a splash of water
10. Cook on a low heat until the berries are really soft and you have a compote consistency
11. Strain the berries through a sieve. Keeping the liquid to add to the buttercream
12. For the buttercream beat together the butter and icing sugar until you have a smooth, fluffy icing
13. Once the berry sauce has cooled, add to the buttercream
14. To assemble the cake put half the icing in the middle of the sponges, then the rest on top.
15. Smooth the buttercream on top of the cake then use a pallet knife to create a simple flower pattern on top of the cake.