Welcome to week 6 of the Great Bloggers Bake Off following week 6 of the GBBO, and tonight saw another new theme for GBBO with Botanical. The categories this week were:
Signature : Citrus Meringue Pie
Technical : 2 French Herb Fougasse Breads
Showstopper : 3 Tiered Flower Cake
I decided to make a cake with a botanical flavour to it, as I didn’t want to make pastry for a second week in a row (as much as I adore lemon meringue pie!), Herby Bread is nice but not always easy to make pretty in photos, and as much as I would have loved to have made a 3 tiered cake, I would have to eat it and I am trying to be good!
Therefore, I made a loaf cake and I added basil in the batter along with some lemon yogurt, and strawberry slices along the middle to add some sweet jamminess to compliment the zingy lemon and almost aniseed basil notes. I have to say that the basil made the batter a lovely subtle green colour and it tasted nice, which gave me hope that the finished bake would also taste delicious. I would not have thought to add basil, but when I googled herbs to use in cakes, that and thyme came up and I decided to go with basil as it is easier to remove from its stalks! I made the cake in my Ninja Complete Kitchen, which is a change for me as I usually make all of my cakes in my Kenwood mixer. The Ninja Kitchen made short work of making the batter, and it was great because the same blade was abel to chop the basil leaves in with the butter, saving me from having to use my mini food processor which, in turn, saved extra washing up 🙂
The loaf cake was a simple bake, not much of a showstopper I admit, so I simply decorated it with some lemon flavoured icing and some extra strawberry slices.
I wanted each slice of cake to contain a strawberry slice, and I held my breath as I cut into it and thankfully there was a little strawberry peeping through – it actually went very gooey and this made it taste like a little shot of strawberry jam. Yummy!
Using lemon yogurt in the sponge made it lovely and moist, and the tangy icing added a nice little touch of sweetness to each slice.
The basil – yes the basil my botanical element to this bake – well it complimented the cake very well. You could just taste a subtle hint of it, and it did make for a very pretty looking cake with the little flecks of green inside it.
I would never have though that basil would taste nice inside a cake!(Thanks google for that!). It may not be as flamboyant as the showstoppers featured on tonights show, BUT it was delicious and easy to make and perfect with a cup of tea 🙂
If you fancy making a Lemon, Basil and Strawberry Loaf Cake, then here is the recipe:
- 15g fresh basil leaves
- 115g unsalted butter
- 200g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 250g self raising flour
- 100g lemon yogurt
- ½ punnet strawberries
- *Lemon Icing*
- 5 tbsp icing sugar approx
- the juice of 1 lemon
- *Decoration*
- sliced strawberries
- pre heat the oven to 180oC / 160 oC (fan)
- grease and line a 1lb loaf tin
- Blitz your basil leaves in a food processor - I used the Ninja Complete Kitchen to do this
- Add the butter and sugar and beat inside the Ninja/food processor/mixer for about 5 minutes until pale and creamy.
- Add the eggs and beat the mixture for a couple of minutes
- Add the yogurt and flour and mix until combined
- Pour ½ of the batter into the loaf tin and place as many strawberry halves as you can along the middle standing up
- Cover with the remaining batter and smooth over the top with a knife
- Cook for about 45 - 50 minutes until risen, golden and cooked right through. You might need to cover loosely with foil after 40 minutes
- Allow to cool and then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack
- Once cooled completely make your icing by mixing the icing sugar with the lemon juice to make a thick consistency - you may need to add more icing sugar if not thick enough
- Then drizzle over the top of the cooled cake, and scatter the strawberry slices over the top
- Enjoy with a cup of tea
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On your marks, get set and baaaaaake!!!!!
If you would like to bake along with me for the new series of the Great British Bake Off, then the rules are here and you can grab my badge on my homepage and on the rules page. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and remember that at the end of the bake off, I will be holding my prize draw which has been kindly sponsored by Tesco (thank you!) who are also sponsoring some of the bloggers who link up with some vouchers to purchase ingredients. In the finals an independent judge will choose his or hers 3 favourite bakes from the final bake along (week 10).
I was sent a Ninja Complete Kitchen for the purpose of a review and to test out some GBBO inspired recipes in.
love the idea of adding the strawberries in the middle – what a great idea. I loved watching botanical week this evening and would love to attempt something properly floral but so pressed for time this week at work that I think I’ll have to reblog an autumn bake from last year if that is ok. It does fit the botanical theme well i think. x
Thank you and of course you can add or recycle a previous post lovely x
Thanks it was a lovely flavour combination x
A wonderful strawberry treat, I love that you’ve added strawberries inside.
Thank you sarah x
I like strawberry and basil, it’s a great combination. The cake must be delicious.
Thank you Anca, it is something I would make again x
I like the idea of adding basil to a cake and I’m think inking it would work really well with citrus flavours! Your cake looks really pretty with the strawberries
Thank you it worked really well x
Ooh I bet that tasted so good Jenny 🙂 I love how well strawberries and basil work together, although I’ve tried it on pavlavas I’ve never used the idea in a cake before. The way you’ve given a little strawberry surprise through the centre of the cake and how they’ve turned all jammy is lovely.
Angela x
It did taste lovely thank you Angela, I was not sure if it would be a disaster but thankfully it was not x
This sounds delicious. I love any kind of lemony cake and I think the basil flavour would work so well with the citrus X
thank you it really tasted very nice, even if not as pretty or big as the ones in the show last night x
Love your interpretation of the theme this week! I especially like the idea of that strawberry surprise in the middle and I do love that combination of strawberry and basil! Thanks for linking up to #CookBlogShare this week 🙂 Eb x
thank you , it is a simple cake but its full of flavour x
Love the idea of using lemon yoghurt in the sponge x
thanks it adds to the moistness and flavour x
I loved this too! what a yum way to keep cake moist!
Thanks Hazel x
I love the strawberries inside your cake and the addition of basil sounds delightful. I also went for a loaf cake, like you I was thinking about the eating of the bake afterwards.
thats the problem isn’t it – too much cake is delicious but not good for the figure! x
Yum I love strawberries in cakes, so good. Basil and strawberry is a lovely combination too, we sometimes have it in the summer.
I have never combined them before this, but thankfully it was a great match for a cake x
Strawberry and basil – Yum. Im a bit of a fan adding herbs to bakes and cakes so this really appeals to me. I have a recipe for basil ice cream on my blog that I think would go fabulously well with this cake.
Oooh basil ice cream sounds amazing x
I love the look and sound of this. We like berries in cake because of the mushiness!
Thank you Shell, it was really nice which was a surprise and a relief! x
I love the sound of this Jenny, especially with the strawberries running through the middle – such a lovely idea.
Thank you it was really nice which even I was amazed at! x
This sounds gorgeous Jenny! I love the idea of basil in a cake, I’ll have to try it out myself.
Thank you it made for a lovely cake x
This looks so yummy, Basil works so well in sweet stuff. The mixer looks good too.
Thank you jenny it did taste nice which was a pleasant surprise. The mixer is so handy because you can do so many things in it x
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