GRAPE, LEMON, THYME + WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE
This is a cake that I’ve baked for many a summer occasion. It’s been my contribution to the school summer fete for a number of years and taken along to sunshine-baked garden parties hosted by friends. It’s a cake for good times. Sometimes I simply dusted the finished cake with icing sugar and strewn over a few time sprigs, and that is enough. Other times, such as in this photo, I’ve gone to town with a cream cheese frosting, grapes, berries, thyme and garden flowers. It’s your shout. I look forward to being able to make this again to share with friends and family once life returns to normal.
GRAPE, LEMON & THYME CAKE
220g butter
220g caster sugar
220g plain flour
4 eggs
zest and juice of 1 lemon
few sprigs of fresh thyme
100g white chocolate chips
20 red seedless grapes
125ml greek yoghurt with honey.
pinch salt
To decorate: (optional) grapes, thyme, flowers
See notes below re. optional frosting*.
Preheat the oven to 180 C
In a bowl cream together the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy then add the eggs one at a time making sure each one is properly combined before adding the next. Next add the lemon juice and zest and pick the leaves off two sprigs of thyme and add that too.
Sift in the flour and salt and fold in, then add the yoghurt, followed by the chocolate chips and stir again until it’s fully incorporated into the mixture. Roll the grapes in flour and fold them through out the cake batter (this helps stop them from sinking)
Pour into a greased and floured 23cm ring tin and bake for about 45 minutes. Allow the cake to cool before removing it from the tin. Once cool the cake can simply be dusted with a little icing sugar. Alternatively, you can cover the top of the cake with a layer of cream cheese frosting*. You can see a simple video here showing how to make it. Either way, some tumbled on grapes, sprigs of thyme, berries and some garden flowers make the prettiest of decorations.