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3/4 pound small, tart, green gooseberries
6 ounces butter
5 elderflower blossoms*
6 ounces pale muscovado sugar demerara sugar
1/2 pound plain wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
flowers and leaves to garnish
Note: A handful of sweet geranium or lemon balm leaves may be substitued for elderflower blossoms if desired.
1. Top and tail the gooseberries into a mixing bowl.
2. Add the finely chopped leaves or the florets of elderflower carefully stripped from the stalk, and stir to mix with the fruit.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
4. Cut, then rub in, the butter.
5. Stir in the muscovado sugar, then the lightly beaten eggs.
6. Finally, stir in the gooseberries and their flavourings.
7. Grease the base of an 8-inch spring-clip cake tin, line and grease again.
8. Turn the cake mixture into the pan and mound it up in the middle.
9. Bake at 350 F (180 C), gas mark 4, for about 1 1/2 hours. Cool for a few minutes before unmoulding.
10. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and decorate with fresh elder blossom or sweet geranium or melissa leaves. Serve the deliciously moist cake while it is still warm -- as a pudding, with plenty of cream.
NOTE: Unlike most cakes, this one does not come away from the sides of the tin when it is cooked.
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