Summer celebrations demand a cake, and so here is a big show-stopper that can be made a day ahead and iced and decorated to the nines. The cake itself is vegan, and can be made with gluten-free flour too (although that does make a slightly denser cake). The icing isn’t vegan, but there are some good coconut oil-based icing recipes online if you need one.
Prep time: 30 minutes | Cooking time: 40-45 minutes
SERVES
12-16
INGREDIENTS
For the raspberry syrup
- 300g raspberries (frozen are fine)
- 100g sugar
- Juice of 1 lemon
For the cake
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange, made up to 800ml with water
- 200ml vegetable oil
- 360g caster sugar
- ½ tsp almond extract (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 700g plain flour
- 2 rounded tbsp (30g) baking powder
- 200g raspberries
For the vanilla ice cream icing
- Half of a 460ml tub of vanilla ice cream, at room temperature
- 250g unsalted butter
- 350g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g raspberries
- Ice cream wafers (optional)
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Base-line, oil and flour three 20cm-diameter round cake tins.
- To make the syrup, mash the raspberries with the sugar and lemon juice and rub through a sieve.
- To make the cake, place the juice, zest, water, oil, sugar, almond extract (if using) and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Sift over the flour and baking powder then mix very well to make a smooth batter.
- Divide the batter between each tin (just under 700g in each if you are using scales). Drizzle three tablespoons of the raspberry syrup over each. Draw the point of a knife through to marble the mixture. Dot the top with fresh raspberries.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool for five minutes in the tin and then turn out on a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Make the icing by beating the melted vanilla ice cream, butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract together.
- Sandwich the cakes together with four tablespoons of icing between each one. Spread the icing on the sides and top of the cake, scraping the sides with a palette knife to give a “naked” effect. Trickle over the remaining raspberry syrup, letting it drip down the sides, and top with the raspberries, plus ice cream wafers if you like.