Recently I did a review of Maggie Beer’s Verjuice Cookbook. If you haven’t yet started cooking with verjuice, then do yourself a much deserved favour and start to do so. As I have previously mentioned, Maggie Beer is a wonderful South Australian and Australian food icon and has her own line of verjuice, which is an absolute staple in my cupboard. For those of you who do not know verjuice, it is the juice of unripe grapes and is a wonderful gentle acidulant and adds such a depth of flavour and colour to so many dishes. I can’t recommend it enough and it is true to say that I am a verjuice ‘junkie’!!
Here is a wonderful cake by Maggie Beer using her Sangiovese verjuice. Please, get yourself some of this verjuice and make this cake – it is quite frankly to die for!! Maggie has a store at www.maggiebeer.com.au where you can purchase her wonderful verjuice as well as so many other fantastic products.
Fresh raspberry cake with Sangiovese Verjuice syrup
2/3 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter
1¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups fresh raspberries
Syrup
250ml Sangiovese Verjuice
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 180C. Prepare a 20cm cake pan with vegetable oil cooking spray and parchment paper.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs one at a time, incorporating each egg completely before adding the next.
Incorporate the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, alternating between each, in two additions. Fold in the raspberries and pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.
To make the syrup, combine the Sangiovese Verjuice and ¼ cup of sugar and heat to boiling point in a small saucepan. Continue to simmer until the syrup is reduced to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon. Take off the heat and cool slightly before spooning over the top of the whole cake or drizzle over individual pieces of cake once they have been cut. Serve with thick cream and some additional fresh raspberries.
