Seasonably Sweet: Gluten-Free Gooseberry Cake

Right now, it's gooseberry season here in the UK. With a little love and imagination these ‘quintessentially English’ berries can make delicious additions to both sweet and savoury dishes. However over the last few years, the popularity of gooseberries has declined due to people no longer knowing what to do with them. So if that's that case for you, let me introduce to you to one of my favourite recipes... My grandma's gooseberry cake.

Gluten-free Gooseberry Cake Recipe

This recipe takes me back to when my sister and I would head down the bottom of Grandma's garden to pick fresh gooseberries during the summer holidays. We'd then hurry back to the kitchen to give them a quick wash and a so-called 'top and tail', before watching Gran create the most delicious summer cake. 125g unsalted butter, softened 125g fair trade unrefined golden caster sugar 3 large free-range eggs, beaten 60g plain gluten-free flour 75g ground almonds 1 tsp of baking powder 200g gooseberries, topped and tailed 1. In a mixing bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until smooth. 2. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract to the mix. 3. Fold in your dry ingredients; the flour, ground almonds, baking powder. 4. Pour your cake mix into a 9″ lined cake tin and pop your gooseberries evenly on top of the cake mix. 6. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180 degrees. Watch as the gooseberries disappear into the cake batter, keeping the sponge extra moist. 7. Serve warm with custard, ice cream or pouring cream.

My Top Tip:

Make sure your gooseberries are as dry as possible after washing them, and just place them on top of the cake, to avoid them all sinking straight to the bottom. Not a fan of gooseberries? This same recipe works really well with rhubarb too. Make the most of these summer berries whilst you can - they won't be around for long! Our other favourite gooseberry recipes include gooseberry fool, gooseberry crumble and gooseberry & elderflower ice cream. We'd love to hear of your favourites… Let us know in the comments below.