Strawberry & Vanilla Loaf Cake

Strawberry & Vanilla Loaf Cake

This was a quick cake we knocked up last night, we had some left over strawberries that needed eating and also some vanilla buttercream that was going spare.  We only occasionally bake cakes for ourselves (although we'd love to eat cake everyday, it's just not good for the waist line!) and this was a very quick and scrumptious dessert. 

Here's how to make it, it's very easy.  You'll have to excuse the mixture of old school ounces and new age grams, I'm used to ounces for making cakes (I know how much mixture I'll get if I think in ounces) and grams for making buttercream.

Strawberry & Vanilla Loaf Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 4oz Stork Margarine
• 4oz Caster Sugar
• 4oz Self Raising Flour
• 2 Medium Eggs
• Vanilla Extract
• 100g Butter
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 1 tbsp hot water
• Strawberries

Method - Vanilla Sponge

1. In a bowl, cream together the margarine and the caster sugar.
2. Add the flour and eggs and mix together thoroughly.
3. Add a few drops of vanilla extract and mix together.
4. Grease and line a small loaf tin and pour in all of the cake mixture.
5. Place the tin on the middle shelf of a pre-heated oven at 180° and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until cooked.
6. Once cooked, remove the sponge from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Method - Vanilla Buttercream Topping

1. In a bowl, mix together the butter, icing sugar and hot water until smooth.
2. Add a few drops of vanilla extract and mix together.

Assemble the cake

1. Once the sponge is cool, simply spread the buttercream all over the top of the sponge.
2. Decorate with sliced strawberries.

Told you it was easy, now cut into slices and enjoy!

HINTS & TIPS

• For a lighter sponge, sift the flour, for an extra light sponge double sift the flour (if you can be bothered!).
• To grease and line a tin without using parchment paper, grease the tin with margarine, add some flour and shake and tap the tin till the flour has stuck to the margarine, tip out the excess flour.
• To check the cake is cooked, insert a knife or cocktail stick through the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean it's cooked, if it has cake mix stuck to it, it'll need a bit longer.
• Use whipped cream instead of buttercream for an even lighter dessert - very summery.
• For extra luxury use vanilla pods instead of vanilla extract, but never vanilla flavouring (it's just not that nice, real vanilla will taste so much better). 

Click here for a printable PDF version.