I like to think I’m a pretty good cook, most of what I cook is edible at the very least, sometimes I have a really good idea but really what I am doing is making something to eat, the highest compliments I have received about my cooking are generally “I’ve never not liked anything you cook” and “Aunty Nic do you remember last time I was here, you made some lovely bread”

As such, my cooking style is instinctive and adaptive, I tweak and add instead of creating something out of my brain wholesale. This cake comes from that. It started as a riff on the yoghurt cake base I used for the gin and tonic cake, with the addition of some allotment raspberries. It was a good idea but I also have to confess that it was a bit of a, not entirely cooked, disaster. Something I did not discover until I iced it and cut into it’s liquid centre.

But the fully cooked edges tasted good and were everything I hoped this cake would be. However, the raspberry season on my plot passed and when I got around to thinking about it again it was August and I bought some blackberries. So I tried it again and paid slightly more attention to the baking stage.

What

For the cake

• 120g plain yoghurt
• 240g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 360g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 a teaspoon salt
• zest of 2 lemons
• 120ml sunflower oil
• 350g blackberries

For the glaze

• 100g sugar
• juice of 2 lemons

How

1. Line an 10 inch cake tin and put the blackberries on the bottom.
2. Preheat the oven to 175C.
3. Combine yoghurt, sugar and eggs in a large bowl until well beaten.
4. Add flour, baking powder, salt and lime zest and beat.
5. Add the sunflower oil to the mixture and don’t worry that it looks like it’ll separate, just keep beating it until it’s all mixed.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, it’s done when a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes away clean. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes.
7. Make the glaze. Add the sugar to the lemon juice, stir until the sugar has dissolved.
8. Using a fork or a skewer, make holes in the top of the cake, pour half the glaze on and leave for 30 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with sugar and refrigerate