Raspberry Cake

All natural colour, nothing artificial

The most special of all cakes...
This time, the recipe really does have a history: invented by my sister when she was much younger, my mum likes to tell the story of how she prepared herself to 'grin and bare it', not wanting to offend the young cook... only to be surprised to find that it was one of the most delicious cakes ever invented! So this one comes straight from Alice, a well-kept secret, until now. It is fabulous, and the amounts are so easy to remember.

Raspberry Cake
Prep time: Same as any other cake, plus 5 mins for raspberry cooking
Serves: 10
Cooking temp: Gas 3, 160 C
Cooking time: 35-40 mins

Ingredients
100g butter
100g sugar
200g fresh raspberries
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 medium eggs

Method

1. Heat up the oven.
2. Soften the butter, but not to a melt, and cream with the sugar in a large mixing bowl
3. Crack the eggs into a cup and whisk with a fork. Set aside for now.
4. Add the baking powder to the flour and pour some into the bowl. Then add some egg, but not all of it. Stir and repeat this alternating process until all of both has been used up.
5. You will now have a very basic cake mix - it shouldn't be lumpy (you can sieve the flour in step 4 if you want)
6. Put the raspberries in a small pan with a tablespoon of water and heat gently with the lid on, for five minutes. The raspberry juice should start to spill out.
7. Strain the juice through a sieve, into a jug, to remove the pips. You should get quite a bit of juice.
8. Add this to the cake mix. (You can save some for the icing: not much is needed)
9. This can make the mixture slightly too sloppy, add flour if this is the case. The mixture should  drip from a spoon, not run like water. It will be a pleasant purple-pink colour by now.
10.  Spoon it into a greased baking tin and cook. The cake should rise to a light purple-brown colour. Stick a knife in the centre: if it comes out with mix attached, cook for five more minutes.
11. To decorate, make a simple icing, but with the raspberries instead of water. This makes a really nice pink colour, and there's nothing artificial! For decorations, try...

-Fresh raspberries
-Silver or gold balls, which go well with the colour
-freeze dried fruit flakes, available at cook shops
-or, of course, anything you want!

This is a really nice recipe that was home-crafted, I've never seen it on sale anywhere: when you eat it, you'll wonder why!