I have a bush of red eating gooseberries in my garden. It has been absolutely laden with fruit this year and although the berries are quite small they taste delicious. Because the fruit is sweet already, I have used less sugar in this sponge and cooked the gooseberries lightly to ensure they are soft once the topping on the cake is cooked. If you’re using green cooking gooseberries, double up the sugar.
Sweet red gooseberries growing in my garden
1 tbsp honey
300g red gooseberries
zest of 1 small orange
60g softened butter
30g soft dark brown sugar
60g self raising flour
2 large eggs
- Set the oven to 180C/350F/Gas4 and use a 20cm oven proof frying pan.
- Gently melt the honey in the frying pan, add the gooseberries and heat gently, until their juices start to run, tossing now and again to coat them in honey. Add 1/2 of the orange zest and toss to mix through. Remove from the heat.
- Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, flour and the remaining orange zest.
- Spread over the gooseberries and bake in the oven for about 20 min.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 min before turning out and serving with creme fraiche.
