Have you ever heard of scented geranium cake? I had not either until I found a recipe on instagram through Erin’s account. At the same time, geranium plants were (are still) all around me. And the leaves are so fragrant. You just know this is an obvious addition to cakes. I called on my friend Alex, who runs the French Family Food instagram account to give me some, and we were ready to bake a sweet geranium and blackberry cake recipe with Louise, adapting Erin’s.
Scented geraniums are a diverse group of aromatic plants with highly fragrant leaves. Leaves have been used in recipes, aromatherapy, herbal and medicinal preparations. I adapted the recipe to use all the blackberries that Louise found int he hedgerows. She ate them all, of course. So I had to buy more at the shop. All good.
It is a fun cake to make with little ones. So much measuring to do, so many eggs to crack (so many), whisking and then the placing of blackberries. Louise is very serious about this task. It is essential to have everything in the right place.
I will copy the recipe from Erin here, and add my changes. But really I only followed her recipe quite faithfully. Erin uses nectarines, we used blackberries. I think you an probably change to any seasonal fruit – as it happens the blackberry season is finished so you might have to find an alternative. You can find other recipes here.
Sweet Geranium Blackberries recipe
Ingredients
- 265 g icing sugar
- 75 g GF plain flour (I used brown rice flour)
- 150 g ground almonds
- 1 lemon (zest)
- 5 sweet geranium leaves
- 6/7 eggs whites
- 265 g melted butter
- blackberries
Instructions
- Grease a 10 inch (25cm) tart tin with a removable base. I use some of the melted butter and flour.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Sieve flour and icing sugar together into a bowl and the then stir in the ground almonds, lemon zest and finely chopped sweet geranium.
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until they are just frothy. You just need to whisk for about a minute, you aren’t looking for soft peaks, just a bit of air in the egg whites.
- Add the egg whites and melted butter to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined and then pour the mixture into the prepared tart tin.
- Arrange your fruit on top of the batter.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes at 200°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve solo for an afternoon coffee break or with softly whipped cream for dessert.
