Strawberry Rosette Cake

The best way that I can think of to try to hurry spring-time along! I finally felt the grip of winter release a bit this week - I haven't worn a winter coat for 3 days in a row.. And I think it might have something to do with this little cake.

It is one of my absolute and utter favourites, and I think that is mainly due to the fresh flavours and the easily-achieved look of the cake.

Rosettes are my new favourite way to decorate a cake – simple but utterly effective. They turn an otherwise rather ordinary looking cake into a thing of beauty, and while I am of the opinion that the taste matters most of all, it is a completely lovely bonus when it also looks as good as it tastes!

Now, I have said before that pieces of fruit have no place in dessert. And I will stand by this opinion come hell or high water! There is nothing worse, for me, than seeing an otherwise lovely cake smothered in berries and stuff. Just eat a fruit salad for dessert if you love fruit that much!

Having said that, we all know that even the best rules have exceptions. And to me, the exceptions are this cake, which only has a minimal fruit aspect (jam doesn't count), and banoffee. Of course banoffee.

Ingredients for the cake

• 175g butter
• 175g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 175g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar

Ingredients for the filling and decorating

• 100g butter
• 400g icing sugar
• 3 strawberries, roughly quartered
• A splash of red food colouring
• 4 tbsp jam
• 3 strawberries, sliced thinly

Method

Begin by preparing the cake, as we always do.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees (very easy numbers to remember in this recipe!).

Line a deep cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Beat the butter and sugars together with an electric whisk, add the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour and baking powder.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

Remove and let cool in the tin for a few minutes. Then remove from the cake tin and allow to cool on a wire rack to cool completely.

It's ok if it sinks in the middle a bit, because we'll be icing the hell out of it anyway

Meanwhile, make the icing for the top and middle. Beat the butter until smooth, and add ¼ of the icing sugar at a time, up to 300g. Then, sieve over the strawberries so you only get the  juice in the bowl and discard the pulpy parts. Mix well, then add a few drops of colouring until it looks nice and pink.

Sift in the rest of the icing sugar gradually until you get a soft yet firm pipeable buttercream.

Now we’re ready to assemble!

With a serrated knife, cut the cooled cake in half horizontally (this is hard for me since I don’t have a straight eye in my head).

On one half, smother with jam, and arrange the slices neatly on top.

Now, in a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle, fill it with the strawberry buttercream.

Pipe some small splodges onto the cake in between the strawberries, and place the other half of the cake on top.

Now, you can get on with the rosette decoration of this beautiful cake!

The rosettes are just the same as the ones for the Neapolitan cake – start in the centre with a blob of icing, and run the piping around the centre in a circle. Again, I youtubed this before my first go.

Now, you’re ready to slice it up and enjoy!