Elizabeth Sponge

A golden honey sponge with crunchy chocolate biscuit, fresh raspberry cream and honey drizzle.

Photo taken from www.kenwoodworld.com

Ingredients:

Sponge:

• 225g unsalted butter (softened)
• 115g runny honey
• 100g Fairtrade caster sugar
• 4 large eggs (brown preferred as these are the Queen’s favourite)
• 225g self-raising flour (grown and milled on our ‘green and pleasant land’)
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 tablespoon of semi skimmed milk
• 180g Bourneville (or good quality dark chocolate) – coarsely chopped
• 100g rich tea biscuits – roughly crumbled into almond sized chunks

Highland shortbread crunch

• 55g unsalted butter (hard)
• 25g caster sugar
• pinch of seasalt
• 65g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon of seasalt
• 20g semolina or ground rice

Raspberry cream:

• 300ml whipping cream, chilled
• 100g icing sugar
• 300g fresh raspberries
• 2 tablespoons of runny honey (for drizzling)

Sponge Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Put the butter and sugar into the mixer bowl of the Kenwood Chef Sense. Use the balloon whisk to whisk at a high speed for about three minutes or until pale and fluffy.
3. Sift in the dry ingredients and use the folding mechanism to gently fold them in to the mixture. Add the milk and honey and fold in gently.
4. Sprinkle half of the chopped chocolate and crumbled biscuits into the base of each tin – spread evenly to cover the base. Spread the cake mixture on top and gently smooth with a palette knife. Put in the preheated oven to bake for 5 minutes before adding the Highland shortbread crunch.

Highland Shortbread Crunch Method:

1. Set the timer for five minutes.
2. Whilst the cakes are in the oven chop 55g of unsalted butter (hard) in to a bowl and rub in the flour, sugar, semolina and salt then stir in the sugar (or whizz in the Chef Sense).
3. After five minutes open the oven door and spoon half of the shortbread mixture over the top of each cake.
4. Return to the oven to bake for a further 15 – 20 minutes until the shortbread topping is golden and crisp and the cake is springy to the touch (or the knife comes out clean).

Miranda’s tip: This cake is also delicious without the Highland shortbread crunch layer. Simply omit this stage and bake the cake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until spring to touch and a knife comes out clean

Raspberry cream filling Method:

1. To make the filing, whisk the cream until stiff using the balloon whisk. Use a metal spoon to fold in the icing sugar.
2. Squash about a 100g of raspberries with the back of a spoon and add these to the cream and gently fold in with a large metal spoon. Use immediately or keep in the fridge until ready to serve the cake. Keep the remaining raspberries to one side for decorating.
3. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave to cool in their tins until almost cold (the chocolate at the bottom needs to set and firm up) before carefully removing them to a wire rack.
4. Make sure the cakes are completely cool before sandwiching with the raspberry cream.

To assemble the cake:

1. Take one cake (shortbread topping up) and place onto a cake stand or plate.
2. Spread the raspberry cream onto the cake with a palette knife or put the raspberry cream into a piping bag, snipping off the end to make a hole about 1cm in diameter.
3. Pipe blobs of raspberry cream in a circle around the edge of the cake, then arrange raspberries in a smaller circle.
4. Pipe a generous amount of the raspberry cream in a circle inside the raspberry circle, and then finish with a spiral of buttercream so the cake is completely covered.
5. Drizzle with honey (letting it drip down the sides a little) then place the second cake on top.

This recipe can be found on www.kenwoodworld.com.