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Blueberry, lemon and thyme poke cake recipe

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This isn’t a fancy name for a cake – quite literally, you poke holes in the cake after baking and fill them with a delicious syrup. We use a combination of ground almonds, self-raising flour and thyme for the sponge and a heavenly blueberry and lemon compote to fill the holes, allowing the cake to soak up all of the fruit juices. See method

Serves 12
30 mins to prepare and 1-1 hr 15 mins to cook
475 calories / serving
Vegetarian

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
200g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 tbsp thyme leaves
50g ground almonds
75g Greek-style natural yogurt

For the blueberry compote

250g blueberries
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour

For the icing

100g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup

No self-raising flour? Add 2 tsp baking powder for every 150g plain flour

Each serving contains

Energy
1985kj
475kcal 24%
Fat
27g 38%
Saturates
14g 69%
Sugars
41g 45%
Salt
0.3g 5%

of the reference intake
Carbohydrate 57.2g Protein 5.5g Fibre 1.2g

Method

Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with nonstick baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, along with 1 tbsp flour per egg, beating well between each addition. Fold in the remaining flour and the baking powder. Stir through the lemon zest and juice, thyme leaves, almonds and yogurt. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for 60-75 mins, until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

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Meanwhile, make the compote. Put all the ingredients, except the cornflour, into a pan. Bring to a gentle simmer, partly covered, and cook for 4 mins. Mix a little water with the cornflour, then whisk into the compote, and continue to cook for 2 mins. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Poke holes into the cake while it’s still warm and in the tin, using the handle of a wooden spoon to go three-quarters of the way down into the sponge. Pour two-thirds of the compote over the top, making sure it goes into all the holes. Cool in the tin for a further 1 hr, then remove and allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the icing. Beat the butter until softened, then add in the icing sugar and whisk until smooth and thick. Stir in the maple syrup. Spread over the top of the cake and decorate with the remaining compote.