A classic victoria sponge, but baked with scented leaves to impart an air of added sophistication and delight. Sandwiched together with crushed raspberries and rose flavoured cream.
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time40 minutesmins
Course: Afternoon Tea, Dessert
Cuisine: British
Keyword: cake, lemon verbena, raspberries, rose, sponge cake, Victoria sandwich
2tspkefir, buttermilk, sour milk or watered down yoghurt
lemon verbena leavesor other scented edible leaves
75gfresh raspberriesplus additional for decoration if desired
75mldouble cream (heavy cream)
2tsp rose syrup(can substitute for icing sugar)
icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
First of all, weigh your egg (s). Then use the exact same weight for your butter, sugar and flour. If you use more than one egg, you’ll need to double, triple or quadruple the quantities of baking powder, kefir, rose syrup, raspberries and cream accordingly.
Butter and line your baking tins, or use silicone moulds. The size will depend on how many eggs you’re using. For a one egg cake, two round 10 cm moulds or tins work well.
Place the verbena leaves on the bottom of the tins.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the egg. If it curdles, just work in a bit of the flour and it should come together.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder, throwing any bran left in the sieve into the compost bin. You don’t have to do this, but its quite nice to not have any large bit in a light cake I find.
Stir until just combined, then stir in the kefir, buttermilk or sour milk. Divide the mixture between the two tins and spoon the top of the verbena leaves.
Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 15 minutes for this one egg cake or until risen, golden and firm to the touch. For a two egg cake, bake for 20-25 minutes, a three egg cake, 30-35 minutes and a 4 egg cake 40-45 minutes. Leave in the tins to cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. At this point you can peel off the scented leaves.
Crush the raspberries in a bowl with the back of a fork. Stir in 1 tsp of the rose syrup.
Whip the cream with the other tsp of rose syrup until soft peaks form.
If the sponges are too domed, level one of them off with a knife so it sits flat on a plate. Spoon on the crushed raspberries, followed by the cream. Place the remaining sponge on top and dust with icing sugar.
Notes
Scale the cake up as needed, by simply doubling, tripling or quadrupling the ingredients.You can substitute the rose syrup for icing sugar and you can grate in a little lemon zest instead of using lemon verbena leaves.Scatter with edible rose petals and additional raspberries for extra decoration.Other scented leaves you can use include: rose, lemon or mint scented geraniums and lemon balm.Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They're approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used.