Strawberry Ripple Cake

This is a version of a recipe I found while “recipe surfing”. I was looking for something to something to do with strawberries, which are plentiful and cheap in spring in Sydney. The cake has ripples of home made strawberry jam through the cake, creating a tangy – and pretty effect. The addition of lot of sour cream in the mixture is great – lovely flavour, and I hope may give the cake some longevity. That may be hard to prove, as the cake tasters I made it for today have done a thorough job!

Ingredients

150g unsalted or salt reduced butter, at room temperature

215g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2  large free-range eggs

300g  self-raising flour

300g  sour cream

1/2 cup strawberry jam (preferably home-made, see recipe below)*

Icing

200g icing sugar mixture

15g butter, at room temperature, chopped

1 1/2-2 tablespoons hot water

1-2 drops red food colouring

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

The cake looks nice in a decorative mold like a rum baba tin, which I used, or a bundt tin. Otherwise use a large cake tin. Grease the mold or tin with butter or non stick spray.

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a food processor until pale and thoroughly amalgamated. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour and sour cream, alternately, using a metal spoon. Tricky but not impossible in a food processor!

Pour half the mixture into the prepared mold or tin. Spoon over half the jam. Using a skewer, ripple the jam through the mixture.  Spoon the rest of the cake mixture in to the mold or tin, add the remaining jam and ripple again.

Bake for 40-50  minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  The cake will take longer in a deep mold, it will take a shorter time in a conventional tin. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Put the butter into a cup, pour over the hot water, and stir until the butter is dissolved. Mix into the icing sugar. Stir in the food colouring. Icing is not an exact science, so carefully add more icing sugar or a little water as needed, to get the icing to the right consistency. You can ice with a knife or just spoon over the cake and let the icing drip down the sides. Set aside until set.

*Home-made strawberry jam

This is an adaptation of my strawberry conserve recipe found on this blog. The difference is much smaller quantities and I mushed the strawberries so that they would ripple nicely through the cake.

Take 200g strawberries and cover with 100g sugar in a bowl (non metallic). Leave for at least 2 hours. The strawberries will have started to give up their juices. Place into a saucepan with the juice of a lemon. Heat slowly, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When all the sugar is dissolved, boil on a moderate heat until setting point is reached. Mush the strawberries, if still whole, into a jam like consistency. Take off the stove and allow to cool.

For more on jam making, click here