Hello strangers…..how have you all been?!!
Summer had been mad here, Weddings, baking for and running 2 Tea Rooms, Birthday Cakes and Anniversary cakes galore! Now is calmed down there is a bit of time for a recipe or few. So we start today with Dream Cake.
Our Dream Cake is a layered slice consisting of a shortcake base topped with a meringuey top filled with Cranberries, Coconut and Ground Almonds. It’s adapted from a recipe we found in a Women’s Institute Magazine, and seeing as it’s the WI’s Centenary this year we thought it apt that we use this recipe…..and it’s totally scrummy!
Daisy’s Dream Cake
Ingredients:
110gms Butter
225gms Plain Flour
2tbsp Icing Sugar
Topping
2 Free Range Eggs
200gms Caster Sugar
50gms Plain Flour
1tspn Baking Powder
55gms Desiccated Coconut
55gms Ground Almonds
55gms Dried Cranberriest
Pre-heat your oven to 160c/ 140c fan/ GM3. Prepare a brownie tray by greasing and lining with baking parchment.
In a bowl sieve together the Plain Flour and Icing Sugar. Add the butter and either rub together with your fingers or if you have a stand mixer use the paddle attachment on medium until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Pour into your prepared tin and press down with your fingertips to make it even biscuit type base.
In the same bowl, beat the eggs and mix with the caster sugar and flour. Beat until it’s light and well combined and mix in the Almonds, Coconut and Cranberries by hand. If you don’t have Cranberries or Almonds, try cherries and walnuts, or sultanas and pecans – either whatever takes your fancy or you have in the cupboard.
Pour the wet mixture over the biscuit base and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is a rich golden colour and crispy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut into slices – we get 8 slices from each bake, but you may get more (or less) depending on how your mood takes you.
The Daisy Cake Diet 
Hello. I was hoping to make this for my very own WI meeting next Monday but am unsure about the meringue type topping – does it just need to be well combined or should I be aiming for some kind of peaks? Many thanks!
No, no need for whisking to peaks. Just make sure it’s well combined and the baking powder will add the air as it bakes.