A lovely buttery sponge cake from Mary Berry’s Absolute Favourites recipe book.
This light and tasty traybake provides a buttery and fluffy sponge. The combination of cinnamon and sugar gives a nice sweet flavour and the pecan topping gives a subtle nutty crunch.
It’s pretty quick to make, the most time consuming part is making the pecan ripple mixture. Ideally you need a food processor for this part in order to finely chop the pecans. The additional pecans for the topping can just be chopped or broken up by hand.
When ever I make this cake, as I spread the top layer of mixture on top of the pecan ripple, I worry I haven’t got enough mixture to cover the cinnamon mixture. If you keep just over half the mixture for the top layer, this is just about enough to cover it. Don’t worry too much if the cinnamon comes through to the surface a bit, it doesn’t matter once it’s baked.
Ingredients
225g (8oz) softened butter
225g (8oz) caster sugar
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
4 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the ripple
100g (4oz) pecan nuts
25g (1oz) light muscovado sugar
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon ( I love cinnamon so normally add 2 tsp)
- You’ll need a 30 x 23cm (12 x 9in) traybake tin. Preheat the oven to 180C/160Cfan/Gas 4. Grease and line the base and sides of the tin.
- To make the pecan ripple mixture, whizz 75g (3oz) of the pecans in the food processor until they are finely ground. Pop the nuts into a bowl and mix with the muscovado sugar and cinnamon. Leave to one side.
- Chop or break the remaining pecans into small chunks and leave to the side for the topping.
- Measure the ingredients for the sponge into a bowl and beat until combined.
- Spread just under half of the mixture over the base of the tin. Then sprinkle over two-thirds of the pecan ripple mix in an even layer. Spoon over the rest of the cake mixture and gently level so you don’t disturb too much of the ripple mixture.
- Drag the handle of a teaspoon in a swirly pattern through the layers of mixture.
- Sprinkle over the rest of the pecan ripple and scatter over the chopped pecans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until it rises, golden and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into squares to serve.
If you bake this recipe, please send me some pics. You can reach me @theachetobake or contact me here.
