Raspberry Loaf Cakes

I thought I'd sneak in a wee Friday bonus bake this week as I realised that my last two posts were sans recipes.

I was looking for something quick to make earlier in the week and I happened to have raspberries in the fridge and some mini loaf cases in the cupboard, the loaf cases have been there quite a while and everytime I've opened the cupboard door for the last six months I've thought 'I really must use those'. So by happy coincidence I cam across this recipe for mini raspberry loaf cakes, it's by Rose Prince who writes a weekly baking column for the Telegraph.

These were so easy to whip up and they looked so cute in their mini loaf cases and to quote Rose 'with the Jubilee bunting put away, their artisanal plainness comes as something of a relief' which I think is so true...they're rather plainer than my usual bake but this is the perfect recipe to make again and again.

The finished article was lovely and moist and the baked raspberries add a lovely soft sweetness. The top of the cakes when baked was also ever so slightly crisp which I like! If you'd like to make some mini loaves you can buy the moulds at Lakeland and they even sell them in Sainsburys now...just goes to show how much baking has taken off in the last couple of years!

Ingredients

3 medium eggs
The weight of the eggs in:
Caster sugar
Unsalted butter
Plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
300g raspberries

This may seem like a slightly strange recipe, so if you like quantities then an average egg weighs 50g so we're talking roughly 150g caster sugar, 150g unsalted and 150g plain flour, hopefully that work!

The recipe also specifies 300g of raspberries which is slightly perplexing considering the recipe yields 6 mini loaves, each with 3 raspberries in, so by my reckoning that should be 18 raspberries...nowhere near 300g!

To make, preheat the oven to 160c/140c gan/gas 2 1/2. Rose suggests using 8cm x 4cm x 4cm loaf cases however I only had 10cm ones and these seemed to work just as well. I imagine in the suggested size this recipe might make 7-8 loaves.

All you need to do to make them is cream the butter and the sugar together and then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each one. Then mix in the vanilla and sift the flour and baking powder in too. This should produce quite a thick cake mix. Spoon the mixture into the loaf cases and smooth, finally press three raspberries into each one and bake for 35-40 minutes. They will taste great at any time but warm straight out of the oven is delicious! :-)