Let Her Eat Cake: Bramble & Lemon Loaf

There's nothing that says the end of August like the scratched arms and sticky lips of a good blackberrying session. That is not a euphemism. Blackberries are yummy picked straight from the bush, but are also awesome in this not-too-sweet cake.

This recipe started life as Dan Lepard's lemon butter cake from his RAD book Short & Sweet. It has changed a lot since then - I prefer yoghurt to condensed milk and I can't be bothered to faff around measuring lemon juice. And obviously Dan's lemon cake doesn't have blackberries in. Or a sticky blackberry syrup drizzled over the top.

If you're a maths geek like me you'll probably arrange your blackberries in a geometric pattern (kind of a cake spreadsheet). If you're a bit arty you'll probably scatter them freeform. Either way is fine and the result is totally worth the scratches.

Bramble & Lemon Loaf

You'll need:

• 2 medium eggs, separated
• 150g caster sugar
• 100g melted unsalted butter
• 100g plain yoghurt
• Zest & juice of 3 lemons
• 275g self raising flour
• 150g blackberries (or as many as you can find on your local bramble bush)

Optional blackberry syrup for drizzling (leftovers are lovely in champagne!):

• A few blackberries
• 100ml water
• 100g caster sugar

Make it!

• Preheat the oven to 180c / gas 4. Grease and line a 19cm loaf tin.
• Beat the egg whites with 50g of the sugar until they form a stiff white foam.
• In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar, butter, yoghurt, lemon zest and juice.
• Sift in the flour and fold through.
• Gently but quickly stir in the fluffy egg whites.
• Tip the batter into the loaf tin, it'll be quite thick and you might need to smooth it over. Push the blackberries into the top of the batter.
• Bake for around 50 minutes, until cooked through. Leave to cool.
• For the syrup, put the ingredients in a pan and boil for 5 minutes.
• Drizzle a little syrup over the cake.