For our most recent meeting of Loire Valley CCC the theme was chosen by our host and was “What’s your tipple?”. For this Nick had an urge to bake a champagne cake. Then he remembered that as we were in the Loire Valley the best thing to use would be the local fizz. Not far from where we live there are vineyards and wine growers that make the most delicious sparkling wines. Very drinkable and a fraction of the price of real champagne.
Personally, I love champagne and believe you can tell the difference. If anyone would like to challenge me to a blind tasting of a couple of champagnes and a couple of good sparkling wines, I would be happy to oblige. As long as you buy! Equally I love the Loire Valley sparkling wines and there are plenty of them around here to choose from. If we have been drinking the local fizz for a week or two and then treat ourselves to opening a bottle of champagne, I always find myself saying, ah yes, champagne, it is different.
It’s also an excellent painkiller. If you have back trouble a couple of glasses will make the pain and muscle spasm so much better – I know, I have researched it fully!
Nick adapted a recipe that he found on the internet to make his cake. The only problem was that it stuck to the tin, in spite of a generous coating of cake release spray. We think it was the raspberries that glued the cake to the tin where they were on the surface. He carefully removed the pieces of cake that were left in the tin and placed them in the gaps in the cake. With a strategic drizzling of pink fizz icing nobody could tell!
It tasted lovely. The flavour of the raspberries was strong and you could definitely taste the fizz in the icing.
This month’s Love Cake Challenge from Jibber Jabber is “I’ll drink to that”. You can see the details here.
This month’s Teatime Treats Challenge from Lavender and Lovage is “Regional and Local recipes and ingredients”. You can see the details here.
Ingredients
For the cake
225g butter, softened, or Lurpak Spreadable
300g golden caster sugar
6 eggs
350g self raising flour
6 tblsp pink fizz
150g fresh raspberries (or frozen, thawed)
1 vanilla pod, seeds
For the drizzle
6 tblsp pink fizz
6 tblsp granulated sugar
For the icing
6 tblsp pink fizz
1 tblsp icing sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4. Grease a large Bundt tin with cake release spray or melted butter.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour if the mixture begins to curdle. Add the pink fizz.
Fold in the flour, followed by the vanilla seeds and raspberries.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and bake for 45-60 minutes until the cake looks browned, begins to pull away from the tin and passes the skewer test.
While the cake is cooking, prepare the drizzle by gentling heating the pink fizz and sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. Prick holes in the top of the cake using a skewer and pour the drizzle gently over the cake. Leave to cool.
Mix the icing sugar with enough pink fizz to make a runny icing and drizzle over the cooled cake. Add sprinkles and/or glitter if you like.
Cuts into 16-20 slices.
A very classy cake with the addition of the pink fizz! I bet the raspberries spread their juice through the cake.
ReplyDeleteOh that cake is just the perfect taste of summer (here's hoping we get some summer this year). Strange how some fruit acts like glue on the tin when it bakes but I'm glad that a little sticking didn't matter in the end. I've often enjoyed a little Loire sparkling but the best sparkling wines I've had in the last year or two have been English. Honestly. It might explain why a number of Champagne houses such as Taittinger are buying up sizeable bits of the English countryside and planting vines. On the other hand, the VERY best sparkling wine I've ever tasted was a champagne that a friend and I were lucky enough to sample at a tasting some years ago. Sadly a bottle of said champagne would have cost us more than he paid for the car we drove to get to the tasting.
ReplyDeletePhil, it seems that the soil characteristics and climate in parts of the UK are just right for growing the grapes used in champagne. More champagne we hope! We haven't had much chance to taste the English wines but are willing to try on your recommendation!
DeleteOne of our favourite champagnes is occasionally on offer for the equivalent of the cost of two bottles of average Tesco plonk - no contest there!
this just looks absolutely beautiful... love all the flavours and the icing. Stunning!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderfully decadent cake! I'm rather partial to the pink fizz myself
ReplyDelete