Gooseberry jam, muscat & mascarpone cake

For the muscat element you can use a sticky dessert wine. They tend to be expensive, but this is a luxurious cake. If you want something cheaper, try the Spanish sweet wine Moscatel de Valencia – Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose stock it.

SERVES 8"10 PREP 25 mins plus cooling COOK 30 mins EASY

V ❄ sponge only

215g butter, at room temperature,

plus extra for the tins

285g caster sugar

1 tsp almond extract

1/ lemon, zested

2

250g self-raising !lour

150g ground almonds

165g plain yogurt

3 medium eggs, at room

temperature, lightly beaten

For the !illing

200g mascarpone 150ml double cream

2 tbsp muscat dessert wine 2"3 tbsp icing sugar, to taste,

plus extra to serve

250g gooseberry jam edible !lowers or lightly toasted

!laked almonds, to serve

1 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4 and butter two 23cm cake tins, then line with baking parchment. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and flu y using an electric whisk, then beat in the almond extract and the lemon zest. Mix the flour, almonds and a pinch of salt together in another bowl. With the whisk on a low speed, gradually add the yogurt and eggs to the bowl with the butter and sugar mixture, alternating with spoonfuls of the flour and almond mixture until everything is fully combined.

2 Scrape the batter into the prepared tins, dividing it evenly. Bake for 30 mins until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave the cakes in the tin to cool for 5 mins, then turn them out onto a wire rack, peel away the parchment and leave to cool completely.

3 Meanwhile, make the filling. Whisk the mascarpone, cream, wine and icing sugar together using an electric whisk for

2-3 mins until you have soft peaks. 4 Put one of the cooled cakes on a serving plate. Carefully spread over the jam (it’s easy to break the sponge so be gentle), then gently spread the mascarpone cream on top of the jam. Put the second sponge on top. Sift over some icing sugar and decorate with edible flowers, if you like. White or cream flowers are lovely on this, but if you can’t find them, go for a single colour. Alternatively, sprinkle over some lightly toasted flaked almonds before sifting over the extra icing sugar.

PER SERVING (10) 740 kcals • fat 45g • saturates 24g • carbs 71g • sugars 51g • !ibre 01g • protein 11g • salt 0.8g