This light, moist cake, flecked with vanilla seeds from The Great British Bake Off is delicious on its own or with vanilla cream or red fruit compote.
Ingredients
- 2 medium free-range eggs, at room temperature
- 225g caster sugar
- ½ a vanilla pod
- 1 x 225g tub of clotted cream
- A good pinch of salt
- 200g self-raising flour
- Crème fraîche or double cream mixed with a few vanilla seeds, to serve (optional)
You'll also need:
- A 20cm spring-clip tin or deep round cake tin, greased with butter and lined with greaseproof paper
WEIGHT CONVERTER
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4).
- Put the eggs and sugar into a large bowl.
- Split the vanilla pod along its length with the tip of a sharp knife and scrape the sticky black seeds into the bowl (reserve some of the seeds to mix with the serving cream, if using).
- Using an electric whisk or mixer, or a rotary whisk, whisk the eggs and sugar until they are very thick and mousse-like and the whisk leaves a thick trail when lifted out of the mixture.
- Stir the cream until smooth, and gently stir into the mixture with the salt. Sift the flour into the bowl and carefully fold in with a large metal spoon. When thoroughly combined, transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and spread evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 50 mins - 1 hr, until the cake is a good golden brown and firm, and a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave for 5 mins to firm up, then carefully remove from the tin, discard the lining paper and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.
Top Tip for making Cornish clotted cream cake
Top tip: Don't throw away the vanilla pod once you've used the seeds. The pod can be used to make vanilla sugar - just add it to a jar filled with caster sugar, or to infuse milk for a custard or ice-cream.
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