The perfect kind of tea cake.

The perfect kind of tea cake.

Boysenberry and Aperol Yoghurt Cake

Full disclosure. I am a sufferer of easily swayed, fairly consistent and all consuming bouts of cake lust. From the day my mother made me the ladybird from the Women’s Weekly cake book I was gone for good.

I can easily skip those fancy schmaancy fondant laden versions. You know the ones – layered up like a row of terrace houses – purchased mostly by bankers for the sort of fee that subsequently requires it to be owned by a “trust”. Yep, I’ll take the good old humble CWA inspired teacake and all its variants any day of the week. Much the same could be said for Italian aperitifs, anytime after midday, which is why I’ve combined the sweetness of boysenberries with the fruity tartness of Aperol in this cake. And I think it works a treat. Most syrup cake recipes suggest you drizzle over the syrup before serving but I think this works best if you slice and let people do their own drizzle; cake is, after all, personal.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened

220g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

200g plain flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder, sifted

1 tsp baking soda, sifted

200g natural yoghurt

150g boysenberries (use frozen if not in season

 

Aperol berry  syrup

Aperol

5 boysenberries

¼ cup Aperol

¼ cup caster sugar

¼ cup water

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin and set aside.

Beat the butter and caster sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs to a bowl with the vanilla bean and whisk lightly with a fork. Add the eggs to the butter mix and beat until combined. Gently fold through the flour, baking powder and baking soda, alternating with the yoghurt. Beat briefly to combine then scrape the mixture into the cake pan. Gently press the boysenberries across the top of the cake. Bake for 45 – 55 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

To make the syrup add all the syrup ingredients to a saucepan.  Place over low heat and cook until sugar dissolves and the mixture has thickened to a syrup consistency. Remove the cake from the oven. Allow to cool in the pan. Serve cake warm topped with spoonfuls of aperol syrup to taste.